The biomechanical magic that could help Elijah Tsatas soar in 2025

At the end of 2023, Essendon’s review ticked off the young talent on its list. Now, a forgotten young star could finally have the tools to show why the Dons picked him instead of Mattaes Phillipou.

It might be the biomechanical magic that helps make all the difference for Essendon speedster Elijah Tsatas.

For the past two years, the No. 5 pick has watched on as the rest of his crew from the top-end of the 2022 draft become permanent fixtures, if not match winners, at AFL level.

But Tsatas, who has been something of a forgotten man amid all the Nate Caddy and Isaac Kako hype this summer, looks finally ready to pop entering his third season.

On Saturday, there were the first concrete signs Tsatas is ready to make an impact.

But first the 187cm ballwinner had to put on the physical size to compete in the clinches and fix his kick.

Tsatas was superb for the Bombers on Saturday. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

And that is where biomechanical guru David Rath, who played a crucial role behind the scenes in Hawthorn’s premiership reign, has gone to work with Tsatas for 15-20 minutes after almost every training session to help iron out some fundamental flaws.

The Surrey Park product will never be Andrew McLeod on that front.

But Tsatas, who was picked ahead of St Kilda midfielder Mattaes Phillipou in a tight draft call for the Bombers, is a natural ball magnet with pace, power and sharp hands.

And if he can take the ball cleanly out of the stoppage, it could finally take some of the contested ball burden off superstar Zach Merrett in the middle.

While Caddy and Kako again stole the headlines alongside four-goal WAFL revelation Tom Edwards from the scratch match win over the depleted Dogs, Tsatas was the big story inside The Hangar.

The playmaker had 31 disposals (including 21 handballs) and four tackles, putting the 20-year-old firmly on track to play in the season-opener against Gold Coast potentially in place of midfielder Darcy Parish who continues to struggle with back and calf problems.

Even without Parish, Essendon’s midfield will be a handful this year with frontline ballwinners Merrett, Jye Caldwell, Nic Martin and Sam Durham.

But the past two years haven’t been easy for Tsatas who might have been in a hurry when he first arrived at Tullamarine, but was made to earn his senior opportunities by coach Brad Scott.

And this summer the line breaker has put in the time to transform his upper body and correct a kicking technique which had let him down.

For a club which has not won a final in two decades, the importance of hitting the nail on the head with a top-five pick cannot be understated.

At the end of 2023, president David Barham released the findings of the Ernst and Young review which ticked off the young talent on the list, but questioned the development programs, saying it was an area which required a “laser-like focus”.

More than two years on, Tsatas’s growth this season will be a crucial measure of that investment.

“We have a young and exciting playing list and must ensure we have the league’s best development programs to ensure our players thrive and reach their full potential,” Barham said.

When the Bombers take on the Suns in three weeks, Tsatas will lock horns with the man who was taken with the next pick after him, Gold Coast’s Bailey Humphrey.

While Humphrey has drawn comparisons to Collingwood star Jordan de Goey, the third-year Bomber will have his own point to prove.

Originally published as The biomechanical magic that could help Elijah Tsatas soar in 2025