A new boxing king has been crowned at Essendon — and Dyson Heppell is steering clear
RETURNING Essendon midfielder Dyson Heppell is unsurprisingly thrilled to be back training — but there’s one player he’ll be keen to avoid when boxing drills kick in.
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FOLLOWING Jake Melksham’s defection to the Demons, a new boxing king has been crowned at Essendon.
And returning on-baller Dyson Heppell will be doing everything in his power to avoid Patrick Ambrose when pre-season boxing drills at the club kick in.
Heppell is unsurprisingly thrilled to be back training with the club, which officially kicked off its pre-season campaign earlier this month.
But there’s one player the gun midfielder is keen to avoid when boxing drills commence.
“Big Patty Ambrose, he’s known to put a couple on my chin when we’re doing bodywork, so you try and steer clear of the big fella,” Heppell laughed.
Heppell and the other nine banned Bombers players still listed at the club have already returned to Tullamarine, alongside the first to fourth-year players.
The entire playing list will publicly unite for the first time on Tuesday night at a twilight training session, which will be open to the public and media.
Heppell admitted he wasn’t a fan of the gruelling running sessions, but said it should be a “fun time” of the year for players.
“There’s no real pressure to perform at this time of the year, you can just work hard with young guys and get yourself as fit as you can,” Heppell told SEN.
While Heppell would’ve rather been out on the field in 2016, he said he has returned to the club in better shape as both a footballer and a person than before.
“It was tough to deal with at the start. Getting into training and sticking together as a group was really beneficial for us,” Heppell said.
“We still had real motivating factor in wanting to come back and share some real success with the group. We really see that happening, it’s a fantastic young list and we have a lot to work with.
“I’ve really developed as a person this year and experienced some really unique things in terms of travelling to Europe and having a European summer — things I wouldn’t have been able to do until I’d retired.”
Originally published as A new boxing king has been crowned at Essendon — and Dyson Heppell is steering clear
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