“It would be terrific to get back and be part of the senior team and if that happens three games out or five games out I am not worried but that is what I would like to have happen,” he said.
The twenty-year-old – who played his only AFL game in the Round 20 win against Carlton last year - will make his long awaited return to football with Bendigo in the VFL this Saturday against Port Melbourne following a serious groin injury.
“It (the injury) was a process of over-use and I only really felt the major part of it during the NAB Cup when I played against St Kilda and at half-time it just wouldn’t let me go on,” he said.
“They rested me for the first five weeks and hoped it would go away and then we went and saw a surgeon in Sydney who said I needed an operation.
“I got the tendon released 11 weeks ago and nearly played last week but I woke up on the weekend not feeling 100% so pulled out.”
He has been working closely with rehabilitation coach, Mark Cera, and has improved his upper body strength while recovering from the groin injury.
After 16-weeks out of the game he is excited to be returning and desperate to join the Bombers’ emerging list of young guns.
“You want to be part of it because there are blokes I got drafted with that are playing with Essendon, like Sam Lonergan, who I would like to play alongside,” he said.
“It will be good to get back out this weekend in the VFL and play my normal game and hopefully it will all slot into place.
“I don’t have any match fitness, which obviously you only get from playing, so I will probably blow up in the first few minutes but I still have normal fitness.
“I am doubting whether I can still find the ball but you just have to think more about team things like tackling and chasing and then the ball will come to you hopefully.”
Hocking was placed on the Bombers’ rookie list for 2006 and 2007 and, after impressing Matthew Knights, was elevated to the senior list.
Knights rates him as an important member in the Bombers’ best team and thinks he can develop into a Cameron Ling strong bodied type player.
“The coach sees me as being a good solid contributor to the team, when I am fit and well, through the midfield hopefully,” Hocking said.
“He wants me to run with a good opposition player and not just play defensive, play more attacking and I am happy to do that because I know I can as I’ve done it a couple of times last year and it’s a good role.”
Essendon fans will be watching closely and hoping another young Bomber can put their name on the AFL map before the season is over.
