Essendon young gun Dyson Heppell is enjoying the challenge of facing some of the best taggers in the competition in the absence of captain Jobe Watson.

Heppell was superb against the Crows collecting 27 disposals once again proving to be an important part of the midfield brigade.

The 22-year-old said he was enjoying being able to test himself against the best defensive midfielders in the league.

“It is a great learning experience for myself, I don’t know how Jobe deals with it every week,” Heppell said.

“It is about your work rate, trying to get to as many contests as you can and making quick sharp decisions around the ball to lose your man.

“I am learning every week by copping a bit of attention and speaking to Jobe about those type of things has been really good.”

“They (your opponent) always react to you so if you can take them to dangerous spots and make quick decision you have your opponent on the back foot.”

Heppell is having his best season to date averaging a career high 28 disposals and five tackles per game.

A member of the club’s seven man leadership group, Heppell is pleased with the way the team has stepped up following the loss of their captain.

“It is a massive loss losing Jobe and we really have to take on leadership as a whole group,” he said.

“It is something we have tried to drive amongst the leadership group and spreading that throughout the rest of the team.

“Brendon Goddard’s performances over the last few weeks have really driven that standards.”

“Other boys have lifted in that area, Jake Melksham was fantastic against Adelaide and David Zaharakis has really improved his leadership.”

Heppell said his side was continuing to improve as the season went on with their performances becoming more consistent over the last few rounds.

“We certainly have been able to execute the way we wanted to in patches throughout this year,” he said.

“I think every game we are playing we are understanding more about the way we want to play and getting more experience into players."

“It was a well rounded performance against the Crows for the four quarters, we had a good start before they came back hard at us but we were able to control the game.”