A pleasant takeaway from last Thursday’s unofficial practice game was seeing Sam Weideman in the Bombers’ uniform for the first time.

He wasted no time making his impact felt, taking a mark inside 50 early, converting his first ‘unofficial’ touch as an Essendon player into a goal.  

“It was good to get my hands on it and steer that one through, I’m looking to build on this performance.” Weideman said.

His addition to the side may have fans wondering how the forward structure will accommodate both himself and Crichton medallist, Peter Wright.

Weideman is confident that once they truly gel together, it will be a dangerous duo for opposing defences.

He’s also convinced that the side’s small forward brigade will be dynamic and damaging once the ball hits the deck.

“We weren’t getting in each other’s way and were both launching at the ball well, hopefully we will start clunking them very soon,” he said.

“It was good to get the talls and smalls involved, it is our role to bring the ball to ground, I thought the smalls were terrific.

“Jye Menzie in particular has been very good.”

Regarding the match itself, Weideman believes the side settled well in their first contest against opposition, slowly becoming more confident as the match progressed.

“Defensively, stopping the uncontested marks let us down early, once we got settled it was really pleasing,” Weideman said.

“From here, we started to play some really good footy off the back of that, once we got some clean inside 50 ball movement, we were able to kick some nice goals.”

Despite his short tenure so far in the red and black, this hasn’t stopped him feeling right at home at the NEC Hangar.

“Yeah definitely, I am loving it so far, everyone has been very welcoming,” he said.

“I am excited to keep it rolling and hopefully there are plenty of good times to come.”