Now in his fourth season in the AFL system, Blease has battled with injury, form, self-belief and a broken leg that threatened to end his career before it started.
It has taken him a while to get his career on track but he seems to have finally consolidated himself as an AFL player with a five-goal display for Melbourne against St Kilda in round 20.
Click here for Sam Blease's career stats
Blease has joined a rare band of players to receive Rising Star nominations in two separate years, having earned a nomination in round 23 last year.
While he was aware that he was still eligible for the award, Blease said he was still taken aback that he was nominated ahead of some of the teenagers making their way in elite football.
"It was a bit of a surprise. I thought they might have gone for a younger bloke," Blease told AFL.com.au.
Blease played five games last year and has managed another 13 this year after working hard to impress new senior coach Mark Neeld.
He said Neeld's arrival at the club along with former Adelaide coach Neil Craig had brought about vast improvements to the defensive side of his game.
"I've worked pretty closely with Neil Craig and Neeldy which has been good. They have really driven that with me," he said.
"It has been an area I've needed to improve on. Craigy has given me a few reminders while I've been playing, just to jog my memory and make the defensive efforts around the ground."
Blease admitted he has had to work hard to win over Neeld, who dropped him after round one this season, not recalling him until round eight.
"There's always that bit of uncertainty about where you stand with a new coaching group coming in. I've really tried to embrace it a lot more in the second half of the year," he said.
"I've been able to hold my spot and I've really enjoyed playing footy under Neeldy, we've just got to hopefully jell better as a team and hopefully the success will follow."
Speaking after Blease's five-goal effort against St Kilda, Neeld joked that the 21-year-old had already been to the 'confidence shop' and was well stocked up.
But Blease said there was a time not so long ago where that wasn't the case.
"I like to think I'm pretty confident in how I play and how I go about my footy. Coming back from a broken leg I was pretty low on confidence and there were times I didn't think I would actually make it back to play AFL," he said.
"That was before I even debuted. AFL footy is all about confidence and if you're up and about and you are confident you can generally do a lot with that. I've generally tried to do as much as I can without being cocky or arrogant but just quietly confident."
