ESSENDON star Andrew McGrath is expected to return to a defensive role next season under new Bombers coach Brad Scott.

McGrath was recruited to the club as the No.1 pick in the 2016 NAB AFL Draft and excelled playing as a line-breaking half-back throughout his maiden season in the League, winning the NAB AFL Rising Star award as a teenager.

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However, pushed into the midfield in recent seasons to inject some much-needed speed and dynamism to Essendon's onball group, McGrath struggled throughout the 2022 campaign as his disposal, clearance and tackle numbers all dipped significantly.

But with Scott keen to avoid shoehorning players into unnatural and unfamiliar roles as he takes the reins of the club this summer, another positional switch for McGrath is expected to be among the top agenda items for the new Bombers coach.

"I think there's a tendency in our industry … if you look at the All-Australian side, which I was part of selecting this year, you tend to gravitate to the key-position players and then the superstars who are midfielders," Scott told AFL.com.au's Draft Night Countdown last week.

"I think we tend to push the really good players, who are Andy's size, into the midfield. If they're really good players, that's where they should play. But an analogy I'd use from where I'd been previously at Collingwood a long time ago, Heath Shaw was an All-Australian half-back and every year there would be this push from fans and the club to get him into the midfield. The best thing for Heath was us realising he's an All-Australian half-back and that's his best position.

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"I'm big on trying to get players into the role that suits them best, not trying to push them into a role that the team needs."

With the club's first-to-fourth-year players returning to training a fortnight ago, Scott has used his first weeks in the Essendon job to attempt to recognise the best positions for a handful of his more intriguing young stars.

"There are some players that I can't fit into a category. You look at your key forwards, your key backs, your midfield types. There are some players who, quite frankly, I just don't know where they're going to play at the moment. That's a positive," Scott said.

"There are a lot of players where their greatest strength is their versatility. There's risk in that, because we don't want to throw them around all over the place, but where I thought there might have been some gaps there are certainly some players that can fill those gaps if they continue to work and continue to develop.

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"Some of the young talent still needs time. Some of the guys that are really impressive, they still look like young boys. That's been pretty stark, coming back in (to coaching). You meet some of these players in the flesh for the first time and you realise they're 19 or 20 years of age and have got a bit of development to do."

Essendon, which was among the youngest teams in the League last season, added to its promising playing group with the recruitment of talented midfielder Elijah Tsatas (pick No.5), key defender Lewis Hayes (pick No.25) and father-son duo Alwyn Davey jnr (pick No.45) and Jayden Davey (pick No.54) at last week's national draft.