Essendon Coach James Hird has praised the work of the club’s development department in the wake of the Bombers nine point win over Melbourne. 

The Dons fielded a youthful line-up featuring 12 players with less than 40 games experience.

“A lot of those guys weren’t ready at the start of the year, they’ve taken half a year to build their football and that’s all credit to our development department,” Hird told SEN.

Mark Neeld, Hayden Skipworth, Paul Corrigan and Mark Corrigan have been central figures in guiding Essendon’s young talent.

The VFL side is on track for a top four finish, but it was the AFL team in the spotlight yesterday.

21 year olds Joe Daniher and Shaun Edwards kicked seven goals between them.

Midfielder Nick O’Brien played an important role running with Demons Captain Nathan Jones.

“When you play youth you do get that enthusiasm and you get that absolute buy in,” Hird said.

The young group of Essendon players has been made to earn their games in the AFL, with many including O’Brien and Edwards, serving long apprenticeships in the VFL. 

“You certainly don’t pick young players who are out of form,” Hird said.

“It’s not fair to play those guys en masse if they’re not ready.” 

Experienced players including Paul Chapman, Dustin Fletcher, David Myers and Jason Winderlich could all return to the field in the next few weeks. 

Hird said yesterday’s result doesn’t change the selection criteria; form, and not age, is the most important factor. 

“I think you need a balance between youth and experience,” he said. 

“On yesterday’s game a lot of our younger players played well and deserve to play next week.

“We’ll play the players who are in the best form with an eye on the future.”