Heath Hocking Biography

Delisted Bomber Heath Hocking still believes he can benefit another club with his experience, leadership and hardness.

"Twelve years' experience in the game is something you can't just get, and this year there's been some real positives with the way I helped the young Essendon guys come up, and I know they had high regard for me and what I tried to do," he said.

"My game is (based around being) hard in the contest and I think a lot of teams need that.

"That's how I'd sell it, but age probably holds me back a bit (in the eyes of clubs)."

Garry Hocking joins Collingwood as an assistant coach with a focus on stoppage work.

"I’m extremely excited by the opportunity to join such a proud club that is rich in history," Hocking said.

"Hopefully I bring a skillset that complements the other quality coaches already in place and together we can achieve that."

Heath Hocking is cut by the Bombers after 12 years of service to the club.

"It's been an amazing time for me," Hocking said.

"I feel as though I'm a better person for being involved with the footy club.

"I'm sad that it has come to an end, but I'm excited for the future and what that holds."

After a spending a year out of football while serving his suspension, Heath Hocking is coming to terms with AFL training again.

"We're training pretty hard and it's a bit of a shock to the system," Hocking said.

"We've come from training three days a week last year, to five days a week now, but it has been good and I'm enjoying it.

"(Fitness staff is) looking after us, not knowing what can happen. We've got 10 players who have done something a bit different than usual, so that's always something to look out for."

Heath Hocking becomes the first of the 12 banned Essendon players to publicly commit to returning to the Bombers in 2017.

The club announced that Hocking had signed a contract extension ensuring he would again play for Essendon after completing a backdated two-year doping suspension that ruled him out of the entire 2016 season.

"I'm an Essendon person through and through, and nothing could sway my passion for the football club,” Hocking said.

"I have a strong belief in the direction of the club, and I have no doubt once we move past the challenges of this season we will be well placed to achieve success.

"I hope the other boys feel the same way. It would be great to see them return to the club so we can continue on this journey we started together."

Essendon's worst fears have been realised with the Court of Arbitration for Sport finding 34 past and present players guilty of taking banned substance Thymosin Beta-4 and suspending them for the entire 2016 season.

Twelve players still on the Bombers' list and five now at other AFL clubs who took part in Essendon's 2012 supplements program have been hit with two-year bans beginning on March 31 last year.

However, most of the suspensions will come to an end on November 13 this year, taking into account provisional suspensions already served.

Bombers skipper Jobe Watson, vice-captain Dyson Heppell, reigning club champion Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Tom Bellchambers, Heath Hocking, Travis Colyer, Michael Hibberd, Ben Howlett, David Myers, Brent Stanton and Tayte Pears will all miss the Bombers' 2016 campaign.

The guilty decision impacts four other AFL clubs with former Essendon players on their lists, with Jake Carlisle (St Kilda), Stewart Crameri (Western Bulldogs), Jake Melksham (Melbourne), Angus Monfries and Patrick Ryder (Port Adelaide) to be sidelined for the season.

Former Essendon players Mark McVeigh and Brent Prismall are set to be suspended from their respective roles at Greater Western Sydney and the Western Bulldogs until November 13 as support staff are banned from any WADA-complaint sports under the sanctions.

McVeigh is an assistant coach at the Giants, while Prismall is a player wellbeing and welfare manager with the Bulldogs.

Essendon champion and former club coach James Hird slammed the guilty verdict and suspensions.

"I am shocked by this decision," Hird said in a statement.

"I firmly believe the players do not deserve this finding.

"They do not deserve to face a twelve-month suspension from the sport. This is a miscarriage of justice for 34 young men."

Heath Hocking is still recovering from groin surgery but has his sights set on playing in the Bombers' round one clash with Sydney.

"I am a realist and I will not be returning too early. I will be happy to wait a few more weeks but that is a long way down the track," Hocking said.

"Mentally I have done everything I have been able to do so now it is just about how my body reacts and doing the best recovery that I can do. I feel confident that I should be right."

Heath Hocking's return to full training has been pushed back by up to four weeks as the Essendon midfielder recovers from off-season groin surgery.

"He's doing well, but he's still not going to be in full training until mid February, maybe end of February," Bombers club doctor Bruce Reid said.

"The concern is he's missing out on a full pre-season, but the upside for him is this is his ninth or 10th pre-season, so it's not as though we're dealing with an 18-year-old kid who'll never catch up."

Heath Hocking will have groin surgery this week to correct an injury he carried through last season, and is likely to miss six weeks of Essendon's pre-season.

"We thought he would settle down over the break, but he started to do a bit of work over the break and he wasn't totally comfortable with it," Essendon's high performance football manager Neil Craig said.

"We decided to bite the bullet on that one and see if we can get him up. If we have the operation on Friday it still gives him enough time to prepare and hopefully be ready by round one."

Heath Hocking will sleep in an altitude room for the next 12 nights in a left-field plan devised to keep the midfielder's fitness up as he recovers from a groin injury.

"We're going to make sure that Heath is getting some of that work to his lungs by sleeping in the altitude chamber and then also gradually building up outside the chamber with his running during the week," Essendon's high performance manager Justin Crow said.

Essendon has confirmed the re-signing of star pair Michael Hibberd and Heath Hocking.

Hibberd has signed a three-year contract extension and Hocking has signed on for another two years.

"This club has stood by me throughout my career, they gave me my chance to play AFL footy and I couldn't see myself playing anywhere else," Hibberd said.

"I've got a lot of good mates here, we're a tight group and we want to play and win finals."

"I'm really proud to play for this great club, a club I supported since I was a kid. To 'live the dream' everyday is obviously a great honour and one I don't take for granted," Hocking added.

Brendan Goddard along with Jason Winderlich and Dyson Heppell, is elevated into the Bomber's leadership group which also includes reigning Brownlow medallist and captain Jobe Watson, Brent Stanton, Heath Hocking, Michael Hurley and David Zaharakis.

Essendon players Heath Hocking and Josh Jenkins have been fined for breaching the code of conduct over the on-selling of AFL Grand Final tickets via Twitter.

"The resale of Grand Final tickets for profit is illegal and both players understand the seriousness of this issue,'' Essendon general manager of football operations Paul Hamilton said.

"Although Heath never had any intention of selling the tickets, he was aware that Josh was trying to gauge their value via Twitter and should have put a stop to it. As Heath had full awareness it was happening, he takes responsibility for his involvement as well.''