It is inevitable that all holidays must come to an end and tomorrow is that day for most of the Essendon team. The majority of the squad will return to pre-season training tomorrow morning. Football manager Dominic Cato said the players have enjoyed a two-week break over the Christmas period and he is sure the squad will return refreshed and ready to face the season ahead.

Nine senior players – James Hird, Dustin Fletcher, Joe Misiti, Mark Mercuri, Sean Wellman, Scott Lucas, Matthew Allan, Matthew Lloyd and Justin Murphy – will not resume training until next Monday, January 12th. This extra time off is due to long-service leave owing to the players.

For the players that do return tomorrow, the week will involve a development workshop.“Assistant coach Dean Wallis is running a development workshop for the majority of players that are recommencing training tomorrow. The three days will involve different activities including hearing from guest speakers and will also involve training aspects such as skills and weights as well,” Cato said.

“Players will kick off training tomorrow morning with a skills session at Windy Hill. Post Christmas the players will start to handle the footballs a lot more than when pre-season started in November,” Cato said. It is hard to believe but it is just over one month until the Bombers first hit-out for 2004. The team will play Sydney at North Sydney Oval in the annual exhibition match on Saturday, February 14th. Click here to find out what else the Bombers’ have on in the coming months.

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