James Gwilt Biography

James Gwilt is delisted by Essendon.

"James is a great person and has helped develop and mentor our young defenders since arriving at the club," Essendon football manager Rob Kerr said.

"In light of the challenges we faced with our list this season, James stepped up and played a vital role for us both in the backline and with our leadership group."

James Gwilt has declared he is keen to keep playing beyond 2016 as he waits for the Bombers to indicate their intentions at the end of the season.

"I'm definitely keen. My mind and my body are fine, and my knee is pretty good. So I'm definitely keen to keep going," Gwilt said.

"I understand that the club is in a unique situation and it's good that some of the boys have already re-signed, this week and last week.

"It's a bit annoying waiting, but there's 10-12 other guys in my situation as well. I've just got to deal with it, that's footy."

James Gwilt's future is unclear after the Essendon defender underwent surgery on a knee injury sustained in the Bombers' loss to Richmond.

"James has got an injury to the cartilage in his knee – the meniscus," Essendon high performance manager Justin Crow said.

"He's been in for surgery this morning with Julian Feller. We'll be waiting for the outcome of that surgery before knowing what's going to happen for the rest of the year.

"It's just arthroscopic surgery but given there is only six games to go, we're a bit unsure where that leaves us."

Emerging Bombers Zach Merrett and Joe Daniher have been named in the club's rejigged leadership group, which will feature rotating top-up players throughout the season.

Essendon was forced to change its leadership group when five members – captain Jobe Watson, vice-captain Dyson Heppell, David Myers, Cale Hooker and Michael Hurley – were suspended for the season for anti-doping breaches.

The remaining two members of the group that was announced in December, Brendon Goddard and Mark Baguley, have taken on the respective captain and vice-captaincy duties this year.

The bans left several vacancies, with Merrett, Daniher and James Gwilt added to leadership positions, and David Zaharakis reinstalled into the leadership group after being cut at the end of last season.

"Obviously development of our youngsters is a bit of a priority this year so it makes sense that we've got a couple of younger players who are held in pretty high regard by the group and they're emerging leaders," Essendon football manager Rob Kerr.

"Given the circumstances and given the exposure to the full leadership repertoire and what's involved in the senior leadership group level will no doubt hold them in good stead and fast-track their progress."

Essendon coach James Hird says new Bombers recruit James Gwilt will be played as both a forward and a defender.

"I see him playing both roles. He's obviously pretty good at both of them," Hird said.

"He made his mark at St Kilda as a backman, but in recent years he has played some good forward games as well."

Essendon recruit James Gwilt says he may have to play as a forward at his new club due to the Bombers' depth in defenders.

"I'll play wherever they need me to play, so I'm pretty happy to play either end," Gwilt said.

"I've got to win the respect of all the boys by training hard and putting my head over the footy, so I'm just going to try and do that from session to session and see how it goes."

Essendon has confirmed former St Kilda defender James Gwilt will join the club as a free agent.

"James has great flexibility having showcased his ability to play on both small and tall forwards during his time at St Kilda. He has proven experience in big games having played well during finals series in his time at the Saints," Bombers list manager Adrian Dodoro said.

"It is exciting that James has agreed to join our club as we believe he can add some real depth and experience to our list."

St Kilda has wasted no time in delisting Clinton Jones and James Gwilt immediately following the Saints' final game of 2014, a 79-point loss to Adelaide.

"We had a conversation earlier in the week that there won't be a position for those two guys going forward," St Kilda coach Alan Richardson said.

"We had a fantastic conversation with all their teammates behind closed doors after the game to talk about what they meant to our footy club … we spoke to them Tuesday to say that there would not be a contract offer.

"That's where we're at, that's the journey we're on - we need to bring in young players. Given where we're at … we need to go to the draft."

St Kilda backline coach David Teague says James Gwilt has been a standout at pre-season training despite coming back from a knee injury.

"He's been the defender who has probably jumped out for me with the way he goes about his training, and in one-on-one contests he's hardly lost a contest," Teague said.

"He's shown great leadership and he's come off his knee really well."

Nick Riewoldt will captain St Kilda for an eight successive season under a new leadership structure.

Riewoldt will be joined by Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo, Ben McEvoy, James Gwilt, David Armitage, Sean Dempster and Jarryn Geary in the leadership group after Sam Fisher and Adam Schneider decided to step aside.

St Kilda has secured the signature of important defender James Gwilt, keeping him at the club until the end of 2014.

"I've re-signed for another two years, which I'm really happy about," Gwilt said.

"I've always hoped to be a one-club player. I'm feeling pretty good, I know there's a massive opportunity for us at the moment, as a group."

James Gwilt tells about the 'dark times' he had following a knee reconstruction before a successful return to football against Sydney in round 9.

"Initially it was hard because I was doing a lot of training by myself, especially when the boys had their off-season break and I was coming into the club by myself and I was pretty much the only one there," Gwilt said.

"When I first did it things were pretty grim and I was a bit down in the dumps, but as soon as I got back to the club and started training I started to see some progression with the knee."

Important St Kilda defender James Gwilt will make his return from a knee injury in the VFL at the weekend.

James Gwilt's season is over after scans showed the Saints defender had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Saint James Gwilt is free to play against Essendon this week after accepting a reprimand for making forceful contact with Hawthorn's Jordan Lewis on Saturday.

St Kilda forward James Gwilt has used his Noble Park connection to seek advice from North Melbourne legend Glenn Archer.

"He was pretty honest with me and said I need to improve on my physicality. I had the body and the physical traits for it, but just getting it in my head that I could do that sort of stuff that he used to do," Gwilt said.

"He taught me about taking it one contest at a time."