ESSENDON coach Brad Scott is still working through his best forward line mix as the Bombers juggle a host of options in attack.

The Bombers last year relied heavily on best and fairest winner Peter Wright in attack, with the former Gold Coast forward booting 53 goals in a career-best year. Next best was Jake Stringer with 25 majors.

That pair will again be critical for the Bombers in 2023, with Stringer having been training close to goal and Wright overcoming a minor calf injury to be a consistent pre-season performer.

But the Bombers have also grown their pool of forwards in the off-season, with ex-Demon Sam Weideman brought into the club and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti back from his short retirement.

Weideman had a short interruption over the pre-season with a quad injury while young tall forward Harrison Jones has also managed an ankle injury, with Scott still deciding on how his key forwards would combine.

"Peter has clearly announced himself as a dominant key forward of the competition. He's actually had a really good pre-season, he had a minor hiccup with a very minor calf strain which we were very conservative with," Scott told AFL.com.au.

"Sam's had a very good pre-season and impressed everyone. They would be probably obvious candidates to play in our forward half but then we have a good problem where Harrison Jones has a lot of capability. He's been a bit interrupted with his pre-season but seeing them in combination has been really good.

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"Guys like (Kaine) Baldwin and (Pat) Voss have had their moments where they've been really impressive too which, while it's not ideal to have players out, having Wright and Weideman miss a couple of weeks meant we could expose Baldwin and Voss with Stringer. I would say we have more options available to us than I probably thought we would back in November."

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Matt Guelfi stepped up last year to be the Bombers' standout small forward, kicking 17 goals and finishing third in the Crichton Medal. And the Bombers now have a number of options developing alongside Guelfi, with Jye Menzie a standout performer over pre-season and McDonald-Tipungwuti building his fitness base.

"It's amazing how quickly things can change. It's fair to say we had some concerns in that area. That's where in terms of building our list and having that open mind that I talk about all the time is really important," Scott said.

"Certainly prior to the national draft we thought we were probably a bit light for small forwards. Will Snelling has played 50 games of AFL now and he's very capable in that role. But then 'Walla' comes back, Guelfi's had a really good year, Jye Menzie's coming through, we'll see Alwyn Davey at some point this year and the following year we'll see Jayden Davey.

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"What was probably an area of weakness for us in November is potentially a strength in a year's time."

McDonald-Tipungwuti kicked three goals in the Bombers' intraclub match last week in his best outing over summer. The exciting small forward hasn't played at AFL level since the end of 2021, but will push his round one claims in the Bombers' pre-season contests.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti in action at Essendon's training session at The Hangar on February 14, 2023. Picture: Getty Images

"He's just got to keep playing. My message to him has been to get him conditioned well enough to enable himself to train hard enough and that's a really important distinction. We could just throw him out and run him and try to get him as fit as quickly as possible but it would be fitness built on a really low base. There's nothing that will be a substitute for time for him," Scott said.

"Whether that's round one, whether that's later in the year, we're not going to rush to get him back in because we need him. We want to get him back in fit and ready to go. He's done the vast majority of our pre-season, he's done all our match sim and he'll play in our practice game so that gives him a chance."

The Bombers will play Gold Coast on Thursday afternoon at Austworld Centre Oval for their first clash under Scott and open their home and away season against Hawthorn.