Essendon assistant coach Dale Tapping is confident the Bombers can fill the void left by Jake Stringer and Harry Jones in their forward line. 

The Bombers had 11 individual goalkickers in their round four win over Adelaide, with Peter Wright starring with three majors, Alec Waterman kicking two in his return, and Matt Guelfi continuing to shine in his new role as a forward.

Despite missing key personnel, Tapping said the Bombers had embraced the challenge of finding new avenues to goal.

“A lot of those boys haven’t been there, particularly ‘Jonesy’ (Harry Jones), 'Tippa' (Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti) and Jake (Stringer) has been there intermittently, so I think we’ve already had some opportunity with our forward line to start to jell and come together. 

“Alec Waterman came in on the weekend and played a really vital role. He has great impact to hit the scoreboard and there were certain aspects around how we wanted him to play around the forward line. 

“Matt Guelfi is starting to contribute and find his feet at AFL level, so it’s not going to be foreign to us. Over the first month we’ve had opportunities to start to develop other aspects and other players.”

With 12 goals throughout the opening four rounds, Peter Wright has been a key pillar in the Bombers’ attack. 

Tapping has been impressed by the 25-year-old’s ability to influence the game, which he believes is a result of his dedicated preparation. 

“Pete is doing an outstanding job. He is really leading the front half really well and having a presence in the game,” he said.

“He is playing as well as he ever has at AFL level and is really maturing into a really good player. The thing that has really stood out to me about Pete is just his professionalism and how he prepares for games. He sets himself up to succeed.”

Wright has had no easy task in the first four games, coming up against some of the best defenders in the league.

“He had Steven May the week before and then had Harris Andrews for a large portion of the Brisbane game," Tapping said.

“He worked really hard on those players but equally he worked and prepared for Jordan Butts, who is probably an under-rated Adelaide young defender but he wanted to know all about him, his positioning and how he could set himself up to succeed, which he did by kicking three goals in the first half.”

The Bombers will look to back up their first win of the season when they host Fremantle at Marvel Stadium on Easter Sunday. Click here for a match-day guide.