At 192cm, Dunn cut an imposing figure around stoppages last season as he learned the art of the run-with role and he's confident the extra weight will help and not hinder him as he looks to develop further in the important job.
"My skin folds are the same, so it's a good result. I needed to get stronger," Dunn says.
"A little bit of weight should help me out-body my opponents. I've still been clocking the kilometres up at training and my speed hasn't been too bad.
"We've been monitoring it to make sure that it's not getting too hard for my body or putting stress on my joints or anything, but I've coped with it pretty well. I'm currently at about 98kg, but if I can sit at about 96 or 97kg as a playing weight that would be great."
Drafted by the Demons 15th overall at the 2004 NAB AFL Draft after a promising junior career in attack, Dunn can't pinpoint the exact moment when the transformation from forward to tagger began, but it matters little because it's a change he has fully embraced.
"I know blokes don't like being sat on by taggers, but that suits me fine," he says.
"I'll just give them what they don't want. It's a competitive game, it's not like you can just have everything handed to you on a plate.
"I like a bit or argy bargy with my opponents. It's no stress on me."
Dunn played on an impressive list of AFL stars last year including All-Australian skipper Brent Harvey who had a few unkind things to say in the aftermath of the match during which the Demon was reported twice.
The 21-year-old laughs when the topic is brought up and while he's not keen to re-visit the events of that day, he admits he wouldn't mind getting another crack at the talented Roo when the teams meet again in the opening round of the season.
"Boomer thought he got a bit of unfair treatment," he says. "We'll just wait and see what happens in round one. We'll leave it to the football gods."
While he will be continuing largely in a negating role, Dunn hopes to add more attacking elements to his game, citing Geelong’s Cameron Ling as a good role model.
Dunn has sought advice from new assistant coach Scott West for a few tips.
"He's been scragged his whole career, so I can speak to him and find out what he didn't like and what he found worked for him when someone was playing on him," he said.
"Last year I played an extreme shutdown role where I didn't have to touch it, but my bloke couldn't touch it either.
"This year it would be nice to also become a bit of an attacking option in the midfield as well and get a bit more of the ball."
Dunn was pleased with the progress he made in the role last season and credits his competitive nature for allowing him to not become too focused on the high calibre of player he must do battle with each week.
"I've just got to do my homework on my opponents and play each man for what he's worth," he says.
"You can't afford to sit back and think, 'Oh geez, this bloke's pretty good'. It's just two blokes slogging it out and I'm pretty competitive so I'll back myself in to beat anyone.”
