Essendon's supporters should be excited by a bonny batch of fast-tracked baby Bombers, says midfielder veteran Ryan Crowley.
Essendon upset Melbourne by 13 points on Saturday for their first win of the AFL season in the second round - after many pundits thought they wouldn't win a game all season due to the club's large group of suspended players.
Crowley says the doping bans have caused the Bombers to throw younger players into the fray who will be the backbone of the club for the next decade.
"As an Essendon supporter, you would have to be stoked with the amount of young guys we have got coming through," Crowley told the Seven Network's Game Day on Sunday.
"Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish, Kyle Langford, Joe Daniher is still young ... these guys are going to be at the club for the next 10 eyars and you have to be excited with that.
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"They are so professional in the way that they are going about their football already and I feel that it sometimes take a few years for guys to get that.
"They are fast-tracking their development really well."
Former Fremantle tagger Crowley was suspended for taking a banned substance and missed the 2015 season before being signed by Essendon as a top-up player following the season-long suspensions imposed on a batch of the club's players for doping violations.
