The 192cm, 18-year-old has been under McVeigh’s watchful eye since being taken with pick No. 5 in the 2008 NAB National Draft.
“Hurley has been really impressive on the track,” McVeigh said.
“He looks like a ready-made player and his kicking skills are first rate.
“Off the field he is a quality individual too and he has what it takes to really establish himself as a key player for the club.
“I would like to see him out there as early as possible and to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out there in Round 1.”
While Hurley has impressed on the training track, McVeigh’s pre-season was interrupted when a broken toe - sustained in a training drill in December - left the star Bomber on a modified training program.
The 27-year-old - who commenced running last week - admitted that the injury set-back was straining mentally but says he is now looking forward to resuming skills training on Monday.
“I was very disappointed with my foot because I had trained really hard over the off-season and put a lot of work into getting myself ready,” McVeigh said.
“It was hard to deal with being sidelined through injury because I felt like I was missing out on a lot of what the boys were trying to do.
“I guess you know in your head what you have to do but it is also about being out there on the track and learning what you have to do physically to ensure you are 100% percent on all the structures of 2009.”
McVeigh produced career best football last season before a hamstring injury sidelined him for eight matches. Barring further injury, he expects to be fully fit for Round 1 of the home and away season and is looking forward to recreating the form which saw him place fifth in Essendon’s 2008 Best and Fairest and poll 13 Brownlow votes.
