Essendon coach Matthew Knights has been rewarded for overseeing the club's first AFL finals appearance in five seasons with a two-year contract extension.

Knights, who was already signed for 2010, is now locked in until the end of the 2012 season.

He guided the club to 12th place in his first season in charge last year, before they scraped into the finals this season.

The Bombers have focused on youth under Knights, a policy that will be even more pronounced after the recent retirements of decorated key forwards Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas.

Knights said the stability of the extended contract would allow him to gradually develop the young list.

"Over the first two years we've deliberately put certain parts of our game style in place, this coming year we're going to add more dimensions to our game style," Knights said on the club's website.

"I've certainly taken the philosophy that we've slowly addressed it and slowly cooked it over two years.

"To be able to add more dimensions this year to our game style is fantastic.

"It means we don't have to rush things and we can put things in place without disregarding what we've previously done."

New Essendon chief executive Ian Robson said the club believed they were heading in the right direction.

"We are confident that Matthew will continue his good work with them as we build towards our next period of sustained success," Robson said.

"He has taken the team into the finals in just his second year as coach and has the squad playing exciting football, so this signing is great news for the club.

"We believe that the next few years will be very exciting for all Essendon supporters and this contract extension gives Matthew time to bring this young group through together."

Before missing the finals for the past four seasons, the Bombers had made 19 of 24 finals series under Knights' predecessor Kevin Sheedy.

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