SUCH is Michael Hurley's ability to fulfill whatever job his team requires, debate will probably always rage about where he plays his best football.

The man himself, though, has a firm idea of where he'd like to settle, and with good reason.

The last time Essendon's bustling 22-year-old was shifted to the backline, just before half-time against Carlton in round four, it took only moments for him to tweak his hamstring.

"I'm pretty happy not to go back," Hurley told AFL.com.au this week. "I was back there for about two minutes and I pinged it. I'm happy forward."

It is an injury that has interrupted the first half of Hurley's year, a start he admits hasn't been ideal. After a quiet opening few rounds, the injury put him out for three weeks. He returned well against Richmond in round eight, but only had nine touches in last week's win over Greater Western Sydney.

Befitting a footballer who sets himself high standards, Hurley is stripping things back to the basics. His body feels fine and he thinks he's covering the ground well and doing the team things, but he'd like to be taking more marks, kicking more goals, and having more of an impact on games.

To get there, he feels it's a matter of being smarter. Last year, he added a layer of finesse to his game to complement his raw power, strength and speed.

He's not sure if being more restrained will help him avoid injury - Hurley's had a mix of contact, stress and soft-tissue injuries in his four-season career - but says he's coming to grips with sometimes curbing his instincts.

"When I'm out there I find it hard to pull back," he says. "I'm an all-or-nothing type of player. I go hard or I'm walking around.

"It is hard for me to pull back, but I have been talking to (assistant coach) Mark Thompson about being a smarter player and when to go and when not to go. I'm not reigning myself in, it's just about using my brain."

Hurley is Essendon's most promising player. He's as brave as he is skilled, reads the game well, and has a presence as the club's key forward. It's easy to see why the Bombers sewed him up to a new five-year contract earlier this year.

If one area is lacking in his game, it's his contested marking.

In the first quarter against the Giants last week he went for a chest mark on the lead but the attempt was spoiled. Hurley immediately scorned himself for not attacking the ball with arms outstretched, and was still shaking his head at the effort 10 minutes later.

A number of thumb and wrist injuries may have shaken his confidence a little - he doesn't have much movement in his scar-bearing right wrist - but he also watches Collingwood's Travis Cloke and Adelaide's Kurt Tippett and wishes he could clunk marks like them.

"I envy the way they're able to take contested marks," Hurley says.

"For some players the marking just happens naturally, but as I said earlier it's about me thinking through things more and not just being as aggressive in the way I sometimes approach the ball."

Assistant coach Matthew Egan, who oversees the club's forward line, said he was using his former Geelong teammate Cameron Mooney as an example for Hurley to improve his marking.

"That's definitely the area we're focusing on at the moment," Egan said.

"It's just getting him confident. On the weekend I saw a little change, he was really launching at the ball and just missed some. I'm really confident he's only a week or two away from taking a few marks in a game.

"I've got him to look at how Cam controlled his body in the air and how he would always find space in a marking contest. The good thing about 'Hurls' is that he does like watching vision, so he's watched a lot of key forwards this year."

Hurley is defined a little by his difference. His hands are often cleanest when the ball is below his knees and, unlike most key forwards, he creatively sets up others for shots on goal rather than kick them himself.

In his six games Hurley is averaging 2.2 score assists per game, which is ranked first at the club and equal third in the competition. "I think he gets more joy out of seeing other players succeed," Egan says. "He can be too unselfish at times."

It's a view that Hurley's dad, Damian, shares.

"Dad's on my back all the time about taking responsibility and having the shot at goal. I think that's true. As the key forward you do need to take it on yourself a bit. But if there's someone I perceive to be in a better position then I'll always give it to them."

Damian was a country footballer himself, but was more into swimming when he was growing up. In fact, Damian and Amanda Crameri, mother of Stewart, were both champions of the pool in the 1960s, competing together for the Hamilton Olympic Swim Club.

Now the Hurley/Crameri combination is leading Essendon's forward line, and Egan says they are quickly building a chemistry.

"There's going to be games where one of them gets more of the ball than the other, but along with Paddy Ryder, it's good that we don't have a reliance on just one of them," Egan says. "With more games they can get some continuity."

While Hurley is maturing on the field (he's also in his first year in Essendon's leadership group) he is close to making a move off it.

Six weeks ago he purchased a house in Melbourne's northern suburbs, near where he lives now with his parents. He's got the keys, had a couch and dining set delivered this week, and is getting his head around the things he hasn't dealt with before.

"There's so much more to it than you think," he says. "I was a headless chook for the first three or four weeks getting stuff organised. I'm slowly getting there."

So too is his football. Despite appearances - Hurley's fearless approach sometimes belies his age and experience - his career is still young. He is hard on himself, but knows there's no rush to perfecting things. "I'm a long way off [my best] but time is on my side," he says.

Callum Twomey is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_CalTwomey.