Gallery | Excitement at Essendon about Seymour product’s pre-season

While they visited various schools across Shepparton in the morning, in the afternoon, there was a large turnout of young footballers and families for the hour-long clinic involving the players.

In great news for the young Bombers fans that turned up, the majority, if not all of Essendon’s playing squad was at the clinic.

Meaning star players such as Jake Stringer, Sam Draper and Mason Redman were on hand to sign plenty of jumpers and scarves and pose for photos with fans, young and old.

Last year’s All-Australian squad member Redman said he remembered what it was like to be a footy-obsessed kid in a country town, having grown up at Millicent, a regional town in South Australia.

“It’s awesome getting out into regional places,” Redman said.

“I grew up in country South Australia and we didn’t get too many AFL guys coming to where I grew up.

“It feels really, really good to come out here and give back to the community; it’s a similar community to the one I grew up in, so I love it.

“In SA, there are obviously only two teams and we were four hours from Adelaide. We only ever had one team come out and that was Port Adelaide and I wasn’t really a big Port fan.”

After Essendon was one of the most active teams in last year’s trade period, securing the likes of Todd Goldstein, Jade Gresham, Ben McKay and Xavier Duursma, there is a greater expectation from the football landscape on Brad Scott’s side this season.

To help it live up to the hype, Redman said the club had been much more focused on players’ psychology during the pre-season.

“All pre-seasons have been physically significantly hard, but I think there has been a big onus on the mental side of the game this year,” he said.

“We didn’t do much last year under ‘Scotty’, which I think was by design, but this year we have put a lot of (energy) into that space.

“Benny Robbins has come on board as a sports psychologist. He actually played with ‘Scotty’ at Brisbane, and he has been awesome for the group and, hopefully, we can put into work a lot of the stuff we have learnt from him.”

One player that will feel like a recruit for the club is key defender Zach Reid.

The Bombers believe the 21-year-old is finally ready to play consistent football after his first three seasons were marred with injury.

But Reid isn’t the only young gun raring to go; according to Redman, local boy Sam Durham has impressed everyone during his third pre-season at the club.

“Sammy has certainly put in a big off-season,” he said.

“I think it was awesome for him at the start of his career to go and live with someone as experienced as Andy McGrath; I think he learnt a lot from him.

“He is extremely fit. He knocked me off the line in the first 2km (time trial) and I wasn’t there for the second one and he blitzed the field.

“We are looking for him to have a big year and hopefully he is able to deliver.”

Essendon will play its first practice match against St Kilda at RSEA Park on February 23.