The third-year Bomber went on to play every game for the club in 2011, was its most explosive midfielder in the second half of the year, kicked 31 goals and was the youngest player at Essendon to win the best and fairest since 1981. Things went well.
In preparation for this season, the classy and clean half-forward again met with Hird, and midfield coach Simon Goodwin. They outlined a few areas to keep working on, and ways to get better, but they almost need not have bothered. Zaharakis wasn't satisfied.
"We spoke about how much scope and improvement I've still got in my game," the 22-year-old said at Essendon's family day on Monday.
"I'm nowhere near the player I want to be. This year's just another stepping stone in my development as a player and (I won't) be resting on my laurels from last year."
Part of his growth came in December, when he and teammate Michael Hurley were voted into the club's leadership group. Teammates have already noticed a more mature and vocal Zaharakis, who is enjoying leading by example with his preparation, training and attention to detail.
In Friday night's NAB Cup win against the Sydney Swans, he found himself out on the ground with all the other leaders for the first time. He's mindful that now, having established himself in the Bombers' line-up, it's part of his job to help others do the same.
"I probably haven’t changed too much because you get voted into the leadership group for what you're doing, so you don’t want to change too much," he says.
"But it's been good. It's more responsibility out on the field on game day or at training, and just helping all the younger guys out.
"Even on the weekend, it was probably my first real game and I'm out there with Jobe (Watson), and 'Stants' (Brent Stanton) and 'Spike' (Mark McVeigh) and all that.
"I've embraced it. It was a great feeling to get voted into the leadership group so I've taken full responsibility of it."
Essendon's win over the Swans was important in a number of respects - it was its first of the year, there were signs of progress as a team, and it was completed by an almost full-strength squad.
Several senior players including Alwyn Davey, Sam Lonergan and Kyle Reimers were even forced to sit out the game and play in a VFL scratch match on Saturday to get some match conditioning. Zaharakis said it was a depth that was keeping everybody on their toes.
"It's great from a depth point of view that we have a lot of guys playing in the VFL and makes guys competitive," Zaharakis said.
"A lot of the guys feel that as well. If you don't perform on the weekend or even out on the training track you'll probably get replaced because there's 20 guys now who are injury-free and playing in the reserves who can take your spot each week.
"If we want to be a good side you've got to have that competitive spirit at training."
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Follow Callum Twomey on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
