As Jayden Nguyen put it on Wednesday, ‘this is the fun time’ of pre-season.

Essendon ramped up its pre-season on Friday morning with a 30-minute period of match simulation as part of a big final hit-out before the public holiday weekend. 

With competition for spots expected to be strong ahead of round one, the session offered an opportunity for last year’s extensive list of debutants to go head-to-head with a bunch of returning experienced players for a block of training under full match conditions.

Right from the first bounce, the coaches capitalised on said opportunity with their matchups around the ground – draftees Dyson Sharp and Jacob Farrow were thrown straight into the centre and spent the majority of the match-sim lined up on an on-ball group which included Sam Durham, Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish. 

Sharp held his own on the inside and competed well, even pushing forward late to set up Archie May on a perfect lead to convert. Farrow too had some notable moments, pirouetting out of traffic with poise on multiple occasions. 

Lachie Blakiston and Vigo Visentini duked it out in the ruck for almost the entirety of play, each posing a challenge with their mobility around the ground and hitting the scoreboard. 

Blakiston’s leap and agility saw his side gain an advantage at clearances, linking up well with Parish and Durham on multiple occasions for the mids to explode out of stoppage.

A fit and firing Parish was one of the standouts of the session – after an injury-ravaged couple of years and a big off-season that included a trip to Baltimore for specialised medical consultation and testing, the 28-year-old was impressive.

Clean over the ball in contested situations, Parish was also damaging in space. Elijah Tsatas was another in the midfield who consistently found the footy throughout the day. 

Forward of the ball, it was another edition of the Nate Caddy show.

Taking on different matchups including Zach Reid and Ben McKay, Caddy continually flew for marks both deep inside 50 and as an option up the ground and clunked the majority of them.

His athleticism, courage and aggression in aerial contests was prominent, shaping up to make him a difficult matchup this year alongside the depth of key forwards such as May and Peter Wright, who also worked into the game well.  

Saad El-Hawli was an important link from the back half, while Archie Roberts was typically tenacious and looked to push further up the ground than we saw last season. 

There were exciting matchups of youth across the ground, with Zak Johnson lining up off half back on Rhys Unwin and May often competing against forward-turned-defender Kayle Gerreyn.

Another of the youngsters to impress was Angus Clarke, whose ‘old-school’ toughness and footy smarts are allowing him to complement Mason Redman nicely behind the ball.

The intensity of the session was held to a high standard by the senior boys – Zach Merrett was super vocal for his side, solid tackling was on display from Nguyen, Brayden Fiorini and Jye Caldwell from start to finish.

Archer Day-Wicks’ forward positioning saw him on the end of multiple scoring opportunities – on two occasions, Reid and Redman’s elite distribution kickstarted plays which ended in Day-Wicks shots on goal.

The connection between NGA products Huss El Achkar and Isaac Kako bore fruit when the draftee cleverly played on to advantage along the boundary and found last year’s Rising Star nominee, who hit up Blakiston at point-blank range.

Top ten pick Sully Robey was an active observer on the touchline, working closely and conversing with Toby McLean and the coaching panel as he works his way back into a modified program. 

Harry Jones, Will Setterfield, Tom Edwards, Archie Perkins and Nick Bryan all participated in early ball movement drills before sitting out the match simulation, making solid progress in their push for returns.

The group will return to training following the public holiday weekend.