GWS forward James Stewart has signalled his intention to play with Essendon in 2017.

The 22-year-old key forward has played 18 games with the Giants since making his debut in 2013.

List and Recruiting Manager Adrian Dodoro said Stewart’s desire to play with the Bombers is an exciting development for the Club.

“We were looking for a tall forward that could complement our forward line next year with Joey and obviously Tommy Bellchambers coming back and possibly Aaron Francis playing up forward,” Dodoro said.

“We’ve tracked James since he was at the Sandringham Dragons a number of years ago and he was taken as a second round selection to GWS.

“He’s just found it really difficult to break into a really strong forward line at GWS.

“When you’ve got the likes of Patton, Cameron and Lobb in the forward line it’s very difficult to get a game.

“His NEAFL form has been first class.”

Stewart stands 196 centimetres tall and kicked 48 goals in the NEAFL this season.

“He’s a very smart player. He’s got very good agility, plays as a bit of a midfielder actually,” he said.

“The next step is we’ll talk to GWS … we’re fairly relaxed with the trade and how that would work so in the next few hours I’ll speak to Craig Cameron (GWS List Manager).”

The potential acquisition of a key forward would provide further key position depth for the Bombers who will also welcome back Michael Hurley and Cale Hooker.

“It gives John (Worsfold) the opportunity to be really flexible with the team this year,” Dodoro said.

“He’ll (Stewart) certainly be given every opportunity to play as a forward and I know Cale Hooker is looking forward to playing in the forward line and he may still do that.

“But when you’ve got two All-Australian defenders – we know they can play there with great confidence.”