Essendon 2018 AFL season preview: David King says Essendon is ready to rise

THE Tullamarine Globetrotters will play the most aggressive offensive footy of 2018. It will be thrilling to watch, but there are still some question marks over Essendon, writes DAVID KING.

FASTEN your seatbelts, the Bombers are back. The Tullamarine Globetrotters are going to play the most attacking and aggressive offensive footy of 2018.

The off-field back office courage will only be surpassed by those on-field in the Bombers’ high-octane ball movement program. They have had the courage and conviction to do the trades and pay the piper to get Devon Smith, Adam Saad and Jake Stringer when others baulked.

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The book ended Bombers have significant talent forward and back of centre, but do they have a midfield that can separate games? They needed to answer a midfield problem mid-season in 2017 they trusted their youth for the baton change.

The Bombers are ranked in the league’s bottom four teams for clearance differential, and the opposition score more from clearances than they do. They were the only team in the top eight with a negative differential.

David Zaharakis adds to Essendon’s fast-paced firepower.

Zach Merrett and Andrew McGrath will look to assume midfield control as currently only two of their top-15 rated players are midfielders.

Essendon is already an aggressive corridor counterattacking team (No. 2 in the AFL for using the corridor), but just imagine the intercept work of Michael Hurley and Cale Hooker dishing the ball to the speed machines of Conor McKenna, Saad and the like at full tilt.

What will Stringer bring to Essendon? Grief and turmoil with countless wasted man hours or an unbridled talent that swings games and simply owns defensive units? Stringer kicked four or more goals eight times in his All-Australian year of 2015, then three times in the first eight games of 2016, but only twice in his past 25 games.

The biggest beneficiary of Stringer’s arrival will be Orazio Fantasia, who is the Bombers’ next elite player.

Fantasia has kicked 68 goals in the past two seasons. Look out now help has arrived.

Jake Stringer will add X-Factor to Essendon’s line-up. Picture: Michael Klein

The importance of Brendon Goddard’s leadership cannot be underestimated. The off-season losses of James Kelly, Jobe Watson and Brent Stanton ensures the load falls on to Goddard to lead the way.

Essendon’s greatest flaw is its lack of defensive integrity, and despite the move of Hooker to defence, this isn’t a one-man discussion.

Last season’s team-defence model was flawed and porous, rated the easiest to move the ball against of any of the top eight teams.

The club’s 2018 version has been galvanised by hardship and recalls what made it great — courage. The Bombers are my premiership selection for 2018.

ROBBO’S TACKLE

What I Like

They are a curious team. They’ll play a bit of AFLX-style in the season proper, by that I mean they’ll play some damn exciting footy. Have gained Jake Stringer — what will they get from him? — Adam Saad’s speed from half-back and Devon Smith’s smarts centre forward. It will mean Cale Hooker probably goes back with Michael Hurley, leaving Joe Daniher as the high forward X-man beside the other X-man, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, who is beside Smith, who is beside Orazio Fantasia, who is beside Stringer. Bang, what a forward group. On paper, they loom as a chance to win the flag, but all that depends on how they handle the pressure and how much pressure they dish out. Regardless, the Bombers at Etihad will play some scintillating footy.

What I don’t like

That word — pressure. Sydney smashed them in the final, so the question is: Do the Bombers have too much flair and not enough substance? Dyson Heppell will see more mid time, but with Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish and Andrew McGrath all likely to be in the middle of the ground, will the Bombers be too small at times? Pace is not the issue, but are there enough contested ball winners because clearances are. Plus, is the game plan conducive to winning finals football? Interstate games are also a worry. Last year and in 2015, they won just two games on the road and lost 10, which are not the numbers of a good football team.

Verdict: Top four wouldn’t surprise