DYSON Heppell has looked at home from the moment he first stepped onto an AFL field.
Heppell was Essendon's first pick in last year's NAB AFL Draft, at No. 8 overall - the Brisbane Lions reportedly strongly considered him for their No. 5 pick - so big things were always expected of him.
But it's fair to say he has delivered on these expectations more quickly than even Essendon would have hoped.
The 19-year-old from Leongatha has not missed a game this season. But it's been what he's done in those games that's been most impressive.
South African quick Allan Donald once said Aussie Test batsman Mark Waugh seemed to have an eternity to play whatever thunderbolt he flung his way.
Heppell is the same on the footy field. No matter how congested or frenzied the action around him, he seems to have the time to think his way through it. Oh, and he also has a lethal left foot that can slice through opposition forward presses.
Heppell's debut season has been so impressive he's the favourite for this season's NAB AFL Rising Star award. And on Friday The Age's Martin Blake asked whether his form might be good enough to clinch the Bombers' best and fairest.
Blake put Heppell's prospective feat in perspective. Only 35 League players have won a club best and fairest in their first season, and many of those were mature-aged players who had previously played senior football in other leagues.
For instance, Blake cited Port Adelaide's 1997 best and fairest winner Darren Mead, 26 at the time, and Carlton's 1986 club champion Craig Bradley, then 22, who had both played extensively in the SANFL prior to entering the VFL/AFL.
Heppell will also be in elite company at Essendon if he salutes at this year's Crichton Medal count. The late all-time great John Coleman is the only Essendon player to have won the award in his first season.
Across the competition's other clubs, the first-year best and fairest winners include great names such as Darrel Baldock (St Kilda), Barry Cable (North Melbourne), Geoff Southby (Carlton), Phil Carman (Collingwood), Ken Hunter (Carlton) and Maurice Rioli (Richmond).
Blake acknowledges Heppell would have been a long shot for the Bombers' best and fairest if not for skipper Jobe Watson's recent hamstring complaints, and that he still faces stiff competition from Watson, Dustin Fletcher, David Zaharakis and others.
But even to be in contention for the award is a remarkable effort for a first-year player.
Cox rejuvenated
Ask any club and any player how important having a solid pre-season is and they'll leave you in no doubt it's as big a 'non-negotiable' these days as keeping your head over the footy.
Miss a chunk of pre-season training due to injury and you'll enter the next season behind the eight-ball, they'll tell you.
Embarking on an intensive pre-season was Dean Cox's focus late last year after he'd laboured his way through two injury-plagued seasons.
But West Coast's four-time All Australian ruckman told the Herald Sun he got a surprise when he bowled up to the club to start his 2011 pre-season.
Along with six other veterans, including Eagles captain Darren Glass and Andrew Embley, Cox was told to complete his initial training away from the club.
That senior group met three times a week at a mix of suburban grounds for running and light skills sessions, while they were free to complete two weekly weights sessions whenever they wanted, Cox said.
They did not return to the club until December and Cox said the time away was part of the reason behind his return to form this year.
"The mental side of it was significant," he said.
"To not have to go to training twice a day, six days a week, for the start of another pre-season, it kept the boys really fresh and then we hit December with some real excitement."
After 15 rounds, Cox said his body was feeling as good as it had for years. He said his groin troubles were behind him, allowing him to enjoy continuity in his training, which, in turn, had allowed him to "build some good chemistry" with the Eagles' growing nest of youngsters on the training track.
Cox's is not the only senior Eagle thriving on the back of the modified pre-season. Glass has returned to the form that took him to All Australian selection in 2006-07 and Embley, the 2006 Norm Smith medallist, is playing some of the best football of his career.
It's a great example of how tailored individual training programs can get the best out of players.
Longmire hooked on coaching
Earlier this week, Media Watch took at a look at the stifling criticism AFL coaches can come under. Our interest was sparked by a Mike Sheahan article in which North Melbourne coach Brad Scott responded to criticisms of his coaching in last Sunday's loss to St Kilda.
On Friday, John Longmire gave us an insight into just what attracts former players to put themselves in the coaching hot seat.
The Sydney Swans coach suggested to the Herald Sun the adrenaline rush and excitement coaching gave him outweighed its downsides.
Longmire said the emotions he had experienced playing in North Melbourne's 1999 premiership team after missing its 1996 flag with injury had been intense.
"I think I had three possessions and carried on like I had won the Norm Smith Medal," Longmire said.
But he said the emotions coaching had stirred in him had been surprisingly satisfying too.
"But 2005, working with (the Sydney Swans') forward group (gave me) unbelievable satisfaction," Longmire said.
"I was surprised how excited I was even being an assistant coach and seeing players you worked with really develop."
By the way, we were relieved to find the Herald Sun's piece on Longmire was a feel-good one because it's opening par had us concerned for a second: "When it comes to frightening debts, John Longmire may have everyone covered."
When we read on we soon discovered debts should have read debuts and the only fright Longmire had had to deal with was making his debut in the fiery 1987 Battle of Britain clash between North and Carlton.
Ah, typos, they can make you wince. But we've all been there.
In short
Geelong is set to announce it has re-signed 2007 Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel, The Australian's Greg Denham reports. Denham said Bartel was understood to have signed a three-year contract extension that will keep him at Geelong at least until the end of the 2014 season. Denham said Geelong was expected to announce Bartel's re-signing within a month. That would silence speculation Bartel was being targeted by the AFL's newest club, Greater Western Sydney.
Richmond has twice approached the AFL to complain about the tactics used against full-forward Jack Riewoldt this season, The Footy Show's Damian Barrett revealed. Barrett said the Tigers had met first with AFL umpires manager Jeff Gieschen and then with football operations manager Adrian Anderson, showing them footage of Riewoldt being illegally held and blocked off the ball. Barrett said the Tigers believed they got a fair hearing from the AFL, but Riewoldt has received just 11 free kicks this season.
Hawthorn has confirmed star tall Jarryd Roughead could travel to Europe or the US this off-season in a bid to fast-track his recovery from a ruptured achilles tendon, the Herald Sun reports. Hawthorn football manager Mark Evans said the club would support Roughead if he decided to travel in search of the best treatment or advice. "Whether it would be to participate in a program or talk to other people who have been through it, we are open to it," Evans said.
Port Adelaide is preparing to be an active player when free agency comes into the AFL at the end of 2012, The Advertiser reports. Adelaide's daily paper said Power senior assistant coach Jason Cripps would move into the newly created role of list manager at the end of this season. Cripps will then be based in Melbourne, where his main brief will be to analyse other teams' lists for potential free agency targets.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
