Essendon veteran Mark McVeigh has warned fans not to expect a repeat of last year's strong NAB Cup campaign as the Bombers get set to take on West Coast and Fremantle in Perth.
Twelve months ago under then-new coach James Hird the club beat Brisbane and drew with St Kilda in the first round before also downing Melbourne and St Kilda to qualify for the grand final against Collingwood.
And while Essendon didn't win the decider, going down by four goals, they took plenty of momentum into the home-and-away season as they won five matches and drew with Carlton to have 22 points after just eight rounds.
What followed though was a flat patch in which they dropped five games in a row, putting in danger their finals hopes before they kick-started their campaign by upsetting eventual premiers Geelong and duly took part in September.
Having learned plenty from that first pre-season under Hird, McVeigh said on Friday morning that the NAB Cup will be more about giving the Bombers' youngsters a chance than looking to be up and running this early.
"We're taking a very young group over which most of our list of young guys will play on the weekend so it's a great time for our footy club," McVeigh said.
"We're looking at it (the NAB Cup) in terms of being able to really develop our young guys."
"So of course we'll be going out there to play some of our best footy but it's also a great time to see where our young guys are at and also give them an opportunity to be able to put their hand up for selection during the year."
"We'll be going out there doing our best but it is a bit of a development sort of phase for the whole pre-season to see if all the hard work they've done paid off so we're looking forward to it."
According to McVeigh, Essendon's stars including skipper Jobe Watson, veteran Dustin Fletcher and rising star Michael Hurley will have their playing time restricted during the next few weeks as they set themselves for Round 1 of the home-and-away season against North Melbourne.
"I think this year you might see a bit of an even balance in terms of the whole list playing," he added.
"I think all players learnt a little bit from that (last year) in terms of you've really got to watch your body, and especially when you're younger."
"Even the coaching staff as well, I think Hirdy said 'I've really got to watch my players and really know how they're feeling'."
"We all know that we had that down period and we'd been up for so long but things may be a little bit different this year."
Having dismissed any concerns that key-position player Scott Gumbleton had suffered a setback since undergoing back surgery in November, McVeigh is also delighted that Anthony Long's luck seems to have finally changed after a lengthy injury battle of his own.
"I think Longy's had a really tough time and he's had a couple of operations on his hamstring and for him to get through a solid pre-season has been great," McVeigh said.
"He's an exciting young player that will come into contention for the NAB Cup and it will be nice to see him run out there it's been a long, hard road for him."