Medical room: After a few injury hurdles, the Bombers looked good heading into Christmas. David Zaharakis (knee) and Tom Bellchambers (knee) were in full training for the first time in the club's last week, David Hille (knee), Scott Gumbleton (knee) and David Myers - who started pre-season in a moon boot - were close to rejoining the main group and Tayte Pears (foot) and Taite Silverlock (foot) were progressing well.
Who's burning: Former Hawk Mark Williams had a first season to forget at Essendon with injuries and form issues hampering his progress and keeping him to just four senior games. He's finally over the ankle injury that plagued him in 2010, has completed every session and has dropped eight kilos.
Draftee watch: South Australian draftee Luke Davis quickly found his feet after moving in with Angus Monfries and has fitted in with the group so well, he's already adopted a nickname. His family arranged for a banner to greet him at the airport when he flew over to Melbourne and convinced him to run through it in celebration of being drafted. His teammates now call him Eric, after Australian film star Eric Bana.
Membership: The Bombers announced a membership target of 50,000 at a launch in November. The 'Stand As One' campaign, spearheaded by club legend Hird and his new team, comes with an emotive television commercial entitled 'I'm One'. In mid December, the figure had reached 29,443, which was about 5000 more than this time last year and was expected to reach 30,000 by Christmas.
After the break: Hird has already put the players through a bruising regime since they returned from their break and has forecast "shorter and sharper" sessions for the new year. They'll remain in a condition phase and could experience more individual sessions to mix things up when they return on January 10. There are no plans for a training camp and the leadership group will be decided early next year.
Telstra Community Camp: The Bombers are off to Bendigo, the home of their VFL affiliate, on February 7-8. The club is planning on holding the usual super clinics and an open training session, and will make various visits to schools, hospitals and community locations.
NAB Cup opener: February 18 v the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.
What they say: "There's been improvement across the board with their fitness, ball use has been good and defensive mechanisms have been good. We've had leftover operations from last year we had to have and Tayte Pears is the only worry with where he's at but even with his navicular and his ankle injury that's repaired, he's able to run. Guys like Jobe Watson, Brent Stanton, Mark McVeigh, Brent Prismall and Angus Monfries have been excellent trainers and they've done the majority of the work." - senior coach James Hird.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
