New Essendon assistant coach Ben Jacobs says the coaching panel at the club assembled for the 2023 season is the best he’s ever seen.

The former Roos midfielder played 90 games at Arden Street between 2011 and 2018, featuring primarily as a tagger.

He spent time as a development coach at St Kilda in 2022, his first year of coaching at the top level, and now joins the Essendon’s coaching and football department to work under his former coach Brad Scott.

Jacobs is confident the new coaching panel will be able to extract the Best out of the young Essendon list.

“This is the best coaching panel I’ve seen, even when I was playing. I think the boys are going to be excited when they get to pre-season and know they’ve got a port of call for every part of the game,” Jacobs told SEN's The Run Home.

“You’ve got guys like Brent Stanton and Michael Hurley in development led by Cam Roberts and obviously the extended line coaches there’s going to be a port of call for every player in every area.”

“I’m kind of jealous and I kind of wish I was playing for this coaching panel.”

Jacobs joins as an assistant midfield coach, alongside Blake Caracella, Daniel Giansiracusa and Dale Tapping.

“Obviously, with Essendon being such a young list, everyone’s got to put their development hat on,” he explained.

“Just being able to work closely with the midfielders and even the midfielders that are well established, they’re still on 26 or 27 (years old), so they’ve still got a lot to improve on.

“I’m just there to support them on that journey.”

While Jacobs’ career was limited by injuries, the hard-nosed on-baller was recognised as one of the best defensive midfielders in the game when deployed by Scott, it’s a trait he'll look to pass on to the Bombers midfield.

Jacobs joins club great Michael Hurley and former star forward Travis Cloke as other additions to the club’s coaching department, while Dan McPherson has been brought in as the new head of performance among other appointments.