He’s midway though his tenth season in the AFL, but Essendon Coach John Worsfold says Matthew Leuenberger still has ‘massive upside’.

The Bombers match against Fremantle marked somewhat of a homecoming for the West Australian ruckman, who played 108 games for Brisbane before joining Essendon last October.

Leuenberger, 27, was one of the Bombers best against the Dockers.  He collected 16 possessions, had 27 hit outs and laid eight tackles.

“He’s got massive upside,” Worsfold said.

“He’s been interrupted over his career to date, so we have to be really careful with him.

“Ultimately I want him at his absolute best for the pre-season and that will see him make the biggest gains.

“He’s got a lot of years left where he can show his full potential and play at that potential.

“He’s coming along but he’s got some niggles that we have to manage as well, to help him get to where he wants to get to as a footballer."

The loss to Fremantle was the Bombers biggest of the season and Worsfold wondered whether the grind of the first half of the season had caught up with some players.

“We looked as indecisive – and a lack of skill and footy smarts – which hasn’t been there, so we haven’t lost that," he said.

“It was definitely off tonight so whether that’s a sign of a little bit of wear and tear from the boys, getting worn down a bit.

“They’ve been enormous so far and that’s the first game where it looked like they just couldn’t dig deep and find anything.

“We still came out fighting in the last quarter which was great, but we were miles off it for the other part of the game."

Ryan Crowley went down late in the match with a hamstring injury.

He’s the third player signed by the Bombers in 2016 to go down with a hamstring injury.

James Kelly was rested for the Dockers clash, but Worsfold is also aware of the extra demands on the young players this season.

“We just can’t expect that we can play all these guys week in and week out and the fact that they need a rest means our younger players are picking up a big workload,” he said.

“(Anthony) McDonald-Tipungwuti is one that we know has had a massive workload this year.

“We’re rapt with the way he keeps stepping up but we’ll need to rest him at some stage, for sure.”