EVERYWHERE David Zaharakis went, people wanted to know what was going on. So did he.
He had never had a six-week stretch of poor form like this in his AFL career, and he was trying everything to make it stop. Trying too much, probably.
Zaharakis' first two rounds of 2014 were good, and then it hit. He had an average game against Carlton in round three, and he started to ask people inside and outside Essendon what to do, and how to get back into form.
He'd ask so many people that, by the time he went home each night, he'd think about all their ideas and try to collaborate them into one big solution. It muddled his mind more.
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What annoyed Zaharakis most was the misconception of why he was playing poorly. Theories abounded. Was there something else behind it? Was he showing his disappointment at being dropped from the club's leadership group this season?
"It was frustrating from an outside point of view, people were starting to talk to me in the street saying 'Are you going to leave Essendon?' and all this sort of stuff because I wasn't playing good footy," Zaharakis told AFL.com.au.
"They were saying 'You don't care about the club any more', and 'He wants to leave the club' and I hated that.
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"People were saying that to me and I was getting tweets about it, just because I was in bad form. But it doesn't mean I'm not trying my best to play good footy each week. They think they know what you're thinking, and I was trying my hardest to play good footy.
"I wasn't caring about the leadership group and people are saying 'You've gone backwards, you're angry about the club' and all this, and really I was just trying my best. Over the last seven weeks it's proven that I've come back into form and I was always trying to play good footy, but I just couldn't. It had nothing to do with the leadership group."
His ability to stand up since round eight – he has averaged 28 disposals in the past seven weeks and feels in "career-best" form – shows a return to the leadership group is likely down the track, but that would be a by-product rather than a driving force.
Zaharakis entered the year healthy, after his first full pre-season since joining Essendon at the end of 2008. After another quiet game against the Brisbane Lions in round eight, coach Mark Thompson pulled him aside, asking Zaharakis to talk to just two people: himself, and midfield coach Simon Goodwin.
"David, like most players, wants to get better every year, and he had that ambition, but didn't mix that with the right way to go about it," Thompson said.
"He was putting a lot of pressure on himself, huge expectations, he's a very proud boy with massive ability. We just told him to simplify it."
This clash with the Brisbane Lions in round eight was the start of David Zaharakis' streak of hot form. Picture: AFL Media
Instead of thinking about things more on the field, and being a second or two behind the play, Zaharakis just played. Gone was the hesitancy and worry of making a mistake, replaced by just running, bursting away and kicking long.
The 24-year-old's form is important, because nobody else in Essendon's midfield offers what he can, mixing class, composure and speed. That's a responsibility that sits well with him, and one he knows will continue to be the case, given he is amongst the group of emerging Bombers in the 22-26-year-old age bracket.
Although the Bombers have not won as many games as they expected, their form has been better in recent weeks, and Zaharakis has noticed a maturing within the players during game reviews.
"Rather than describing certain plays of a game and using 'us' and 'we', guys are picking out teammates who are doing good or bad," he said.
"We haven't done that in the past. We're actually dissecting the game. [It's] a lot more honest and it helps you play good footy because now we're having strong conversations with teammates.
"This group's got talent. It's all about mindset and consistency of effort. We've got to throw out the same effort every week, we can't be happy that we've got talent. I reckon we can be successful with this group. I'm very confident we have a lot of great players coming through."
The Bombers currently sit a game outside the top-eight, but can close that gap with a win against Collingwood on Sunday. With Brendon Goddard (suspended) and Jobe Watson (hip) missing, more reliance will fall on Zaharakis, who has enjoyed a good record against the Magpies through his 102-game career, including the infamous game-winning kick in 2009's Anzac Day clash.
The finals remain a legitimate chance, despite the ongoing off-field ASADA saga. That, Zaharakis said, was not factor in their form.
"If you were an outsider and you came into the footy club and watched for a day, you wouldn't know any different. Nobody's moping around, everyone's doing things as normal," he said.
"We actually hate that people use it as an excuse for us, because we don't use it as an excuse. You hear it on the radio, 'Oh, the ASADA thing' or the boys might be down about this or that, but we hate that.
"We go out to play footy each week and prepare like it's a normal environment."
