Essendon coach Mark Thompson wants to use the remainder of the AFL pre-season to develop a promising forward pairing of Joe Daniher and Jake Carlisle.
The duo shone early in Monday night's one point pre-season defeat to Gold Coast with a dominant Daniher booting two first-half goals while Carlisle kicked three majors in the 1.11.15 (90) to 0.13.11 (89) loss.
Thompson said he felt he had a potentially match-winning pair with the tall duo and feels they'll only get better the more time they work together.
"For about six weeks they've been working together and we'll continue that on," he said.
"We can't play them enough together. They're going to have a good chemistry and they're both nearly 200cm.
"They're going to be hard to stop if they both stay fit, work together and get some experience under their belt."
Daniher was particularly dominant early but couldn't maintain that impact throughout the four quarters.
Thompson says managing the 19-year-old would be key to ensuring he achieves his full potential for the Bombers.
"It's hard to know what to expect," he said.
"We'd like to expect a lot. Play every game, kick 100 goals, that'd be great. It's probably not going to happen.
"We'll just see where we go with him. Try and manage him, give him as much game time, as many games as we can."
Monday night marked Thompson's return to the coach's chair as he begins a season standing in for the suspended James Hird.
The former Geelong premiership coach said he hadn't suffered any pre-match butterflies but he had found himself getting a bit carried away as the Bombers gave away a half-time lead to lose to the Suns.
"It shouldn't actually be like that, it's only a practice match but, yeah, don't like losing," he said.
