Teenage ruckman Vigo Visentini to be Essendon’s 11th debutant for 2025

A long injury list has given Essendon coach Brad Scott a chance to look at all of his players at the top level, and he’s doing just that marking a 50-year first.

The deluge of debutants at injury-hit Essendon is set to continue with teenage ruckman Vigo Visentini called up for Thursday night’s clash with Fremantle in Perth.

A five-day break between games forced coach Brad Scott to find help for veteran Todd Goldstein, who has been filling the breach after season-ending injuries to Sam Draper and Nick Bryan.

Goldstein will miss two weeks and while Scott conceded it was a “baptism of fire” for Visentini, who will be the 11th first-gamer for the Bombers in 2025, the most in a single season at the club since 1974, he’s adamant it will “strengthen our team over time”.

“I would like to think so,” Scott said on Monday.

“There’s no doubt we’d like some support around them.

“But there are some players that I feel have come into our side that wouldn’t have had an opportunity if we didn’t have some availability issues.

Vigo Visentini will take over from Todd Goldstein. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

“But from my vantage point at the moment, they’re players that have come in and won’t go back out again. So that, by definition, will strengthen our team over time.

“It is a bit of a baptism of fire.

“But what a way to start your career – to come in and play not just roles but play really influential, important roles.”

In last Saturday’s smashing by Geelong, Lachie Blakiston and Archer May became the 9th and 10th Essendon players to make their AFL debuts this season, and now 203cm, 19-year-old Vistentini will get his chance.

Visentini will joini Isaac Kako, Tom Edwards, Saad El-Hawli, Archer Day-Wicks, Lewis Hayes, Angus Clarke, Zak Johnson, Luamon Lual, Blakiston and May.

The teenage big man is the younger brother of Port Adelaide ruckman Dante Visentini.

The moment 🥰

VIIIIGGGOOOOO. pic.twitter.com/LnnyAkOCv5

— Essendon FC (@essendonfc) June 16, 2025

Essendon has 13 players on its injury list and is also without midfield bull Sam Durham for one more week after copping a suspension.

The Bombers are still in 12th spot despite Saturday night’s 95-point shellacking from the Cats, after which Scott spoke about the challenge of trying to compete with such a young, inexperienced group.

“We’re trying to educate the chess pieces where to go, and that’s what we’ve got to get excited about as a coaching group,” he said.

“We stepped back tonight, without doubt, but the previous two weeks has shown that there’s enough fight and there’s enough capability within this group, and we’ll never concede.

“We’ll keep coaching, keep working with them. I’ve seen enough intestinal fortitude to suggest that there’s reasons to be optimistic about the future, albeit it doesn’t feel like that right now.

“The positive of that is we’ve exposed players to AFL footy that wouldn’t have played otherwise, and there are some of those young boys that I don’t think would go out of our team for a long time.”

Originally published as Teenage ruckman Vigo Visentini to be Essendon’s 11th debutant for 2025