Essendon coach Brad Scott has taken the stress off Jake Stringer in his anticipated AFL return on Saturday, saying the star ahead solely needed to “fit in” together with his Bombers teammates slightly than produce a dominant efficiency.
Having injured his hamstring within the pre-season, Stringer’s return to soccer got here through the VFL final weekend.
Satisfied that Stringer is prepared for top-flight responsibility, Scott will choose him for Saturday’s conflict in opposition to fellow unbeaten crew St Kilda on the MCG.
“We anticipate we’ll select him based on our main training session today,” Scott mentioned on Thursday.
“He’s just got to come in and play the role that we’re asking him to.
“While it’s nice to have a player of Jake’s quality back in the side, we don’t expect him to do any more or any less than anyone else.
“Different people have different views on how he should be best played, but he’s just got to fit in with our personnel and the system that we want within our personnel.”
However, that doesn’t imply Stringer received’t be inspired to supply his customary “strength and power” to Essendon’s ahead line in addition to the Bombers’ midfield.
“He’s a real impact player,” Scott mentioned.
“It still leaves freedom for him to play to his instincts and to his strengths.
“That’s what we’ve talked about all pre-season – we want him to play to his absolute strength, which is strength and power.”
While happy together with his aspect’s good begin to the season, Scott mentioned the Bombers had “a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be”.
“We’ve always talked about perspective,” Scott mentioned.
“It’s a lot easier to reinforce what you’re doing when you’re getting results.
“It’s very difficult to reinforce principles when, on the surface at least, they’re not working on game day.
“We’re still far from where we want to be in all aspects of the game, so that should be exciting for our supporters to know that we’ve got huge scope as well.
“We’re going to have a huge test this week against a very good side in St Kilda.”
Originally printed as Essendon’s Jake Stringer solely must ‘fit in’ when he makes his first AFL look of the season
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au