AFTER making the NAB Cup Grand Final last year and peaking in the first half of the home and away season, Essendon will take an altered approach to this year's pre-season competition.

The Bombers lost last year's NAB Cup decider to Collingwood but carried some momentum into the early part of the season before falling away mid-year.

Senior Bomber defender Mark McVeigh said the club had learned from that period, and expects a change in strategy this year.

"I think all players learn from that in terms of how you know your body, especially when you're younger," McVeigh said on Friday.

"Even the coaching staff as well, I think 'Hirdy' [coach James Hird] said 'I've really got to know how my players are feeling'.

"We had that down period and we had been up for so long, but things may be a bit different this year.

"Since then we've got new fitness staff and they've brought in a whole new variety of monitoring programs for us all, so we're certainly monitored pretty heavily in how we're feeling."

Essendon plays West Coast and Fremantle on Sunday in the opening round of the NAB Cup, with McVeigh one of few experienced Bombers to make the trip to Perth.

Captain Jobe Watson, Brent Stanton, Dustin Fletcher and Michael Hurley will all miss the opening round, and McVeigh said the coaches had changed their approach to how they manage the playing list in the pre-season.

"Last year we went into the NAB Cup just wanting to play all the guys we possibly could, but this year you might see more balance with who plays," he said.

"The coaches have set a plan for each player in terms of how much time they want them to play, so we all know some guys will play a half on the weekend and some guys will play a half in a couple of weeks time. It's going to be a bit of a mixture this year."

Follow Callum Twomey on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey.

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