Essendon’s AFL team will have a distinct VFL feel this year.
The club has signed decorated Peter Jackson VFL players Jonathan Simpkin, Matt Dea, James Polkinghorne and Sam Grimley as top-up players in the wake of 12 senior-listed players being banned for the 2016 season.
Simpkin (Box Hill Hawks), Dea (Richmond) and Polkinghorne (Essendon) were winners of their VFL club’s best and fairest awards last year, while Grimley (Box Hill) is the joint-winner of the last two ‘Frosty’ Miller Medals for most goals kicked during the VFL home-and-away season.
All have previously played at the elite level, with the AFL careers of Simpkin (37 games at Geelong and Hawthorn), Dea (31 games at Richmond) and Grimley (three games at Hawthorn) continuing after being delisted by their respective clubs at the end of last season. Polkinghorne returns to the AFL after 94 senior games with the Brisbane Lions from 2008-14.
Simpkin, 28, and Polkinghorne, 27, will provide valuable support for a young Essendon midfield missing the bigger bodies of Jobe Watson, Dyson Heppell, Brent Stanton, David Myers and Heath Hocking as a result of the bans.
Simpkin – a 2013 premiership player with both Box Hill and Hawthorn – has played 113 total senior VFL games, also claiming best and fairest awards with Geelong in 2011 and 2012.
Polkinghorne was a key part of Essendon’s run to a VFL preliminary final across his 20 games last year, starring particularly in September with his ability to kick crucial goals.
Dea, 24, should slot into the Bombers back six alongside former Frankston players Michael Hibberd and Mark Baguley, who was recently named Essendon’s vice-captain under new skipper Brendon Goddard.
While unable to achieve extended stays in Richmond’s senior team since debuting in 2010, Dea has proven to be a dependable defender across 46 senior VFL games.
Denied opportunity in Hawthorn’s triple-premiership-winning senior team, key forward Grimley, 25, should get his chance at the elite level this year as a foil for Joe Daniher and Shaun McKernan inside 50 after 69 senior VFL games since 2010.
Essendon also snapped up some VFL talent at the 2015 NAB AFL Draft.
The Bombers selected Sandringham tall Mitch Brown and Coburg key defender Michael Hartley with picks 54 and 68 respectively and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti – a small defender from their VFL team – with pick no.22 in the Rookie Draft.
With All Australian backmen Cale Hooker and Michael Hurley among the club’s 12 banned players, as well as back-up defender Tayte Pears, the mature bodies of Brown and Hartley will likely see plenty of senior game time this season.
Both were named in the 2015 VFL Team of the Year and have previously been on AFL lists. Brown, 25, played 15 senior games at Geelong from 2009-14 and Hartley, 22, spent 2012-13 on Collingwood’s rookie list without making his AFL debut.
However, the opportunities granted to some due to the finding against 34 players on Essendon’s 2012 list will be taken away from others, with three of the banned group unable to participate in the VFL in 2016.
Former Bomber and reigning Footscray best and fairest Brent Prismall will sit out the season, while recently delisted players Alex Browne – who had signed with the Northern Blues – and Ariel Steinberg – who had signed with Williamstown – will also miss out.
The Essendon VFL team’s leading goalkicker from last year, Kyle Hardingham – who recently signed with Pascoe Vale in the Essendon District Football League – is another to be affected.
* Photo: Essendon's James Polkinghorne celebrates a goal during the 2015 VFL preliminary final against Williamstown
Last Modified on 25/02/2016 12:57