Former Essendon premiership player Justin Blumfield will pull on the red and black guernsey again in 2005 after signing to play with the Bendigo Bombers. Blumfield, 27, is taking on a playing and assistant coaches role at Essendon’s affiliate VFL side which will be coached by another former Richmond player in Matthew Knights.

Bendigo Bombers General Manager Paul Barnard, a premiership team mate of Blumfield’s in 2000, was excited to have the experienced player back in familiar colours.

""We are really pleased to have Justin back and back where he belongs in red and black. He will be a Melbourne based player so he will be training with all of his old mates at Windy Hill,"" Barnard said.

""It was imperative that we got Justin to take on both a playing and assistant coaching role and he was more than forthcoming in doing that,"" he said.

""Probably that and the fact he would be going back home to train at Essendon with his mates helped him make the decision.

Blumfield was highly sought after at VFL level after he missed out on being selected in the 2005 pre-season draft. Barnard believes Blumfield’s experience will be a valuable tool at Bendigo this year.

""We’re really thrilled to have him back and he is a terrific guy to have around a football club to pass on knowledge to younger players,"" he said.

""Whilst we are trying to build some culture at Bendigo and it was important that we got someone of Justin’s quality here.

""A lot of the younger guys are thrilled to have Justin to come here but at the same time he wants to prove that he is still good enough to make it at the top level. He will be in the top 10 players in the VFL this year I think.

""His responsibilities as a playing coach shouldn’t hamper his playing abilities so we think it is a win-win situation.

Bendigo have also signed former Carlton big man Callan Beasy for the upcoming season. A ruckman who can go forward, Beasy is an important signing following the departure of some of Bendigo’s tall timber at the end of last season.

""Callan is a tremendous signing and he is very keen to get out there and do a job for the Bendigo Bombers and to prove that he has also still got the ability to play at the highest level,"" he said.

He’s an ex-Bendigo Pioneer so he knows the area well. Callan, along with Justin, Nick Carter and Jordan Doering form the nucleus of a pretty good VFL side.""

Barnard said that pre-season training so far had been pretty tough considering Matthew Knights was a midfielder who played 15 seasons of senior football.

""He (Knights) is terrific and sets the bar pretty high. The players knew that the fitness was going to be high on the agenda this pre-season,"" admitted Barnard.

""With the players training six nights a week and most of them still working full-time, there are a few boys sleeping very soundly at night at the moment I can assure you.""