ESSENDON will play in a distinctly different way next season under new coach John Worsfold, says assistant Mark Harvey.
Worsfold officially took on the senior position at the Bombers in October, replacing James Hird, who departed the role in August after a series of heavy defeats at the helm.
He is overseeing a restructured coaching setup, having brought West Coast premiership teammate and former Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna on board as midfield coach.
Mark Neeld has moved into the newly created position of game performance manager, stand-in senior coach Matthew Egan will lookover the development program and VFL team and Harvey will run the backline group.
Harvey, who returned to the Bombers last season to be a senior assistant to Hird, said it will take the players another couple of months to adjust to Worsfold's ideas ahead of next season.
"The game plan is quite different. John has slowly introduced what his thought process is on how we should play the game so we're still going through that process," Harvey told AFL.com.au.
"I'd say by January we'll be complete with the game plan and then we'll have three months to rehearse it and get it right. It will be a demanding game style so the players will need to fully understand what sort of capabilities they'll need to fulfill the game plan."
The Bombers struggled to move the ball quickly last season as their game plan appeared to break down, and they were the fourth-lowest scoring side in the competition.
Harvey said Worsfold's success as Eagles coach at the long and narrow Domain Stadium might take some tinkering but they would get the balance right.
"Obviously John's just recently been to Adelaide and coached West Coast for 12 years on a very narrow ground," he said.
"The dimensions of the ground over here are a little bit different so we'll have to adjust for that but John's very shrewd and I'm sure we'll come up with the right formula."
Neeld will work closely with the club's coaching panel – from Worsfold, to the assistants and also the development coaches – to develop the game strategy to take into next season.
"I'll spend a lot of time working with the coaches designing training, and spend a lot of time with John working on the game plan," said Neeld, who headed the club's development group last year.
"I'll keep myself very busy with that, and it's also about looking at trends in the game and where it is going and those types of things. It's a role that I'm really excited about."
The former Melbourne coach also sung the praises of Worsfold's influence at Essendon over the past two months.
"He's started really well. He's a highly educated person, he's very clear on his instructions and the roles he wants everyone to play," Neeld said.
"Everyone is certainly valued and it doesn't matter what role you've got, he certainly makes an effort to make sure he speaks to you."
