So, every December I start writing down questions pertaining to each team for these previews. Without fail, I end up with more for Essendon than any other. As with most years, I had to cut some to end up with 20 questions.
Is it because there is always drama at this club? Or is it because there is simply more to discuss when it comes to the Bombers?
There never seems to be a dull moment when the club is involved, does there?
After a horrid run with injury in 2025, Essendon are looking to get their best possible team (minus Nic Martin) on the park early in 2026. That’s the goal. How things play out over the next month or so, I guess we’ll see if that is possible, but I reckon there are more than a few opposition fans hoping history repeats, so they can continue to make “it’s been x-amount of days since…” jokes.
When I think about those fans in relation to the Bombers, I am reminded of a great line from the late Leonard Cohen. In his song First We Take Manhattan, Cohen utters the following line.
“Ah, you loved me as the loser, but now you’re worried I just might win.”
People like seeing Essendon fail because they remember what it was like when they didn’t.
And they’re afraid of it happening again.
And here we are, about to tick into February. Things have been strangely quiet at Tullamarine for the last couple of months. Zach Merrett has re-introduced himself to his teammates, Andrew McGrath has been appointed captain, and oft-injured players are going through their paces as they prepare to right the wrongs of 2025.
Can they?
And if they do, is it time for the Bombers to make a stand and end the drought?
If you’re reading all our previews, you can skip ahead a little bit – It’s the standard intro.
We’re steaming toward a new season, and as we do, it is time to turn our attention away from the glory of last year and look at the possibilities of the new one.
The players have been on the track for a while now – the Christmas break is over, and as we work through January, the charge into the new season ramps right up.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not, and young projects become the next group of stars. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all in to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you want to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide what you’re after.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; HB goes deeper than anyone else covering the game..
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a more comprehensive season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
Let’s jump into the season preview for the Mighty Bombers.
1 – WHAT DOES HAVING A FIT BEST-23 MEAN FOR THIS CLUB?
Well, it would have been nice, wouldn’t it?
Sadly, the club will be missing Nic Martin for the entirety of the 2026 season, after he re-injured the knee he had surgically reconstructed earlier in 2025. The injury is a huge blow to the Bombers, who have come to rely on Martin one being of their top handful of players on any given game day.
If there is a silver lining to this, it is that there have been minimal reports of further injuries since the Post-Christmas return, and definitely no long-term worries… so far.
So, how about this – what does having 22 of the Best-23 available mean to the Bombers in 2026?
That’s better – and it means that this Essendon side is no longer going to be trotting out a makeshift lineup to contend with a team that have, in comparison, been left unscarred. Being able to set up with a defensive line up of Ridley, McKay and Reid is something that occurred just three times in 2025.
The record in the games they played together was 2-1, by the way.
Being able to work with a unit growing in stature, as all back six units need to do as they develop chemistry, is vital, and immediately makes this Essendon side tougher to score against.
We move into the middle – Darcy Parish played just three games, Jye Caldwell 11, and Nic Martin 16.
Know the midfielder who attended centre bounces most often in 2025 for the Bombers?
Will Setterfield.
Ouch, right? He wasn’t even considered a player worth keeping at the conclusion of the season.
And then we had the forwards – Kyle Langford was available for nine games, Matt Guelfi for 12, and Harrison Jones just seven.
You cannot get continuity and flow to the game plan with key players on the sidelines that consistently. It just doesn’t happen. I don’t care how good you are, how deep you are, or how experienced you are – if you’re cut off at the knees like that, you’re not going to generate any momentum. You’re going to stay there… bleeding out.
Essendon lost their last 13 games of the season. In effect, they bled out.
Having a core group of senior players available for 20-or-so games in a season provides the springboard for younger players to grow into their roles. It is crucial to stability and provides an environment for the club to move forward.
Give the Bombers that in 2026, even without Martin, and they are a very different team to the one we saw in the back half of 2025.
2 – WHAT DOES ISAAC KAKO NEED TO DO IN YEAR TWO?
There was so much to like about Kako in his first year, but the most impressive thing about him was how often he would drop his chin to his chest, pump those legs, and bloody chase! It didn’t seem to matter whether he thought he could actually make the ground up – the number of times I saw him put the effort in, I could not help but nod, knowing that he is not just going to make it, but he is going to excel.
Of course, in your first year, you can only pump those legs so often until they don’t have a lot left, and we also saw glimpses of that throughout the season. In other sports, they call it the rookie wall, and eventually the young players break through it, but Kako did have a couple strings of games where he just started to look spent.
A second AFL preseason will do him the world of good.
He played every game for the Bombers – a rarity on this list – and finished with 15 goals to go with his team-leading 27 tackles inside 50.
I expect both of those numbers to climb in 2026.
He’s a willing worker, which is exactly what you need in a small forward. The goals will come, and they’ll be fantastic when they do, but I often assess how much a player wants it, as a forward, by how they make their second efforts. For Kako, it was not just second efforts; it was the third and fourth ones.
It almost feels a little unfair that the Bombers will lean so heavily on him in 2026. The return of Matt Guelfi, assuming he slots back into the forward line, will provide solid support, but when you grab the ball in defence and look to exit defensive 50, it would be the presence of Kako that would spook you. He’s the one who makes you hear footsteps.
There is so much to like about him that it is difficult to keep a lid on it when talking about his 2026 ceiling. I’ll try, but if this isn’t a realistic goal for him, I expect Essendon fans will let me know – they’re not backwards in coming forwards.
25 goals at an average of one per game, and 40 tackles inside 50, elevating him to one of the best pressure forwards in the competition. That’s what I want to see,
The way I looked at it, the only thing stopping him from being in that bracket in 2025 was that he started to run out of legs, at points. At the time of writing, he has done every session, and ticked every box in this preseason. He was exciting in 2025 – he should be ready to blow the doors off in 2026.
If he’s not your favourite Bomber… why not?
3 – ELIJAH TSATAS HAS ONLY THIS YEAR TO RUN ON HIS CURRENT DEAL – IS THIS HIS MAKE OR BREAK SEASON?
There are a few players from Tsatas’ draft that people are keeping a close eye on.
Pick Six, Bailey Humphrey has played 63 games and started to make some noise in 2025, but was sniffing around the idea of a trade last year. Cam Mackenzie, taken at Pick Seven, has struggled to slot into a strong Hawthorn side, and has amassed 46 games.
And then you have Elijah Tsatas, taken at Pick Five, and has just 16 games under his belt.
Both Mackenzie and Tsatas have not signed extensions to take them beyond 2026, which means that both of these young players have something to prove, and if they’re going to be the stars people envisioned when they were drafted, 2026 has to be the season they do it.
I’ll follow up on Mackenzie when I get to Hawthorn, but as it stands, Elijah Tsatas is the most disappointing player from the top ten of the 2022 Draft. And I am just not sure whether this is because he is not the player the Bombers thought he’d be, or there is something else playing out in the background.
When I’ve watched Tsatas play, it’s been a wildly fluctuating experience. His 25 disposals and 11 clearances in Round Two made people sit up and take notice. And yet, he managed just three more games for the season, with a broken hand, and a hamstring complaint keeping him out of the team.
However, he did manage a few VFL games, and amongst them, compiled two 40+ disposal outings. It’s obvious that he can play footy, but I’ve had several Bomber fans float the possibility that he may end up being one of those players that dominates at VFL level, but falls away once he is in the top side.
Those players are so frustrating for both supporters and clubs. They show you what’s possible, and then when you need it from them, it’s nowhere to be seen.
Any way you slice it, 16 games after three seasons in the league is well below expectations for any top five pick, and if Tsatas cannot get up and running for long enough to string 10-12 games together, you get the feeling that he might be one of those names you hear, and immediately start wondering how good they could have been.
There is no shortage of inside mids to compete with at Essendon. Jye Caldwell is probably the first cab off the rank, and Sam Durham and Darcy Parish make Tsatas’ job a tough one if he is going to force his way into the centre.
I’m afraid the time for being a kid with plenty of potential is rapidly coming to an end for him. He either relegates one of the abovementioned players to the role of backup, or he remains in that role, himself.
Where do you see him sitting in 2026?
This season will tell us a lot about what lies in store for Tsatas. Is he simply not a favourite of the current coaching panel? Has he got his eyes on another club where he believes he’d have an easier time finding a role? Or does he have a bit of mongrel in him, to the point he knuckles down, refuses to yield, and fights for his place in this team?
The last option is the version of Tsatas I want to see in 2026. The Bombers need young stars to stand up, and Tsatas stands at the head of the queue. He either makes this the season we’ve wanted to see from him, or he becomes a very expensive investment that simply did not pay off.
4 – IS NATE CADDY CAPABLE OF MAKING THE LEAP FROM 20 GOALS TO OVER 35 THIS SEASON?
And this is the question the Bomber faithful salivate over. You can tell he is the one they’re latching onto, and for good reason.
Nate Caddy attacks the contest the way a key forward should. He runs straight at it, leaps into the air, and accepts that there is going to be a collision. If that collision hurts, then he cops it – no bullshit about the young man… he knows his role.
Just how good he can be in his role is something all Essendon fans are pondering as we inch closer to the season.
Caddy is the diamond in the rough at the club. At just 20 years old, you can already see the club putting their eggs in his basket. They want him to be the player Joe Daniher should have been for the team – hard, damaging, professional… brilliant!
He played 17 games in 2025, and started to draw the best defender, at times. That is a huge compliment from the opposition coaches, as if they acknowledged that his presence could be troublesome, and took steps to combat it. If you were taking notice, you’d see that like any good young player, Caddy was learning about these blokes who will stand beside him for the next however-many years. Their strengths, their weaknesses, whether they could match him in the air – he was like Matt Rowell without the notebook; tucking it all away in his mental rolodex.
He kicked multiple goals in seven games last season, but as the Bombers struggled, his opportunities started to dry up. Instead of excellent delivery inside 50, Caddy was forced to fight and scrap for every touch. He was kicking goals via contested marks, and whilst he did throw the footy on his boot a little too recklessly at times, his composure will come along nicely the more he feels at home inside the Bomber attacking 50.
And he should feel at home – it will soon belong to him.
At his age, he should have been getting a little bit more help, but with Peter Wright struggling to make an impact (aside from his first game of the season against West Coast), it felt as though Caddy was left on an island a little too often.
Fingers crossed the return of Kyle Langford affords him more space to move in without an additional defender to contend with, and Archer May can continue to use his big frame to knock a few out of the way.
35 goals may not sound like a heap when you have blokes like Charlie Curnow, Jack Gunston, and Ben King slotting 70+, but for a player of his size and body shape, Caddy managing 35 would bode incredibly well. Key forwards like him can take time.
Or they can jump out of the box – look at Logan Morris kicking 50+. He is the same age as Caddy.
Whilst 2026 does not define the player Nate Caddy could be, it might just give a glimpse into what is possible.
Again, 35 goals may not sound like much, but when you put it in context of being a 75% increase in output on his 2025 goal tally, it hits home a little more.
He is the future of this club. Let’s see how bright it, and he, shine in 2026.
5 – WHAT DOES BRAYDEN FIORINI BRING TO THIS TEAM?
I thought Brayden Firorini would have made the move away from Gold Coast a couple of years ago.
At one point, he was their leading possession-winner (2019), but as soon as the dynamic duo of Rowell and Anderson landed at the Suns, he found himself stuck further down the midfield rotation than he would have liked. From there, he dabbled as a half-forward before making a home for himself on the wing.
Do you know much about him? I’ve been watching him for years, and this is what I’ve picked up.
He has no issue finding the footy. His inside/outside game means he can switch between the wing and midfield with ease, but his skills under pressure are questionable.
His kicking efficiency has improved dramatically as he has moved to the outside, resulting in a career-high 77% disposal efficiency in 2025, but when inserted into the guts, he hacks the footy too much and seems content to get it out of is area whenever the pressure arrives. There is a place for that, of course, but Essendon have a few already doing that. This is reflected by his abysmal 2022 result of just 59%.
So, what does that tell you?
Play him on the outside, right? A no-brainer.
Fiorini brings 123 games of experience to the Bombers, and provides something the club was severely lacking last year – durability. His presence on the outside gives the Dons a nice balance with their abundance of contested mids, and he is quite an underrated defensive wing, as well.
Expectations for 2026 are difficult to put a finger on. At a new club, his role is still uncertain, but after 20 touches per game in 2025, he and Xavier Duursma could combine to make a formidable duo on the wings.
Who does he displace?
Maybe Harrison Jones, who Brad Scott presisted with last year. Angus Clarke, who was also deployed as a flanker, and Saad El-Hawli was in the role when he wasn’t starting as sub… and thatnk god that stupid rule is done with.
I suppose who gets the wing roles comes down to who works harder int eh pre-season. The Bombers match sims and AAMI match will be a telling factor on who assumes the role come the season opener. I would not bet against Fiorini taking one spot.
The remainder of this article, and the next 15 questions are for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re on the march to the 2026 AFL season and it all begins here. The Mongrel’s Big Questions Season Previews are THE best in the business. If you know, you know… if not, maybe it’s time to find out. Pre-Season, Practice Games… we’re all in. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to re-read the first five questions again, but if you do… there is a heap more below.
