Xavier O’Neill continues to grow as a leader within the Bombers’ VFL program.

The former West Coast Eagle has found himself more energised since moving back to his home state of Victoria in October last year, keen to reinvigorate his career with the Dons and bring his powerful style of play to a new-look VFL side.

O’Neill’s 39 games at AFL level make him one of the most experienced campaigners in the Dons’ young VFL squad and the midfielder’s ability to channel it with his teammates is already bearing fruit.

We sat down with the 23-year-old to discuss his start to life with a new club and the growth of the squad over this pre-season.

EFC: Xavier, it’s been a busy handful of months for you since returning to Victoria, readjusting to a new club after five years in the AFL system and recovering from some injury troubles – how’s everything been going for you on a personal note?

XO: It’s been a pretty hectic stage in my life at times, but in a really good way. It’s been energising learning a new game plan while getting accustomed to new coaches and new players around me as well.

Settling back into Melbourne has been enjoyable, although there were some challenges coming back still handling a few injuries. The Bombers’ physio team of Richard, Jake and Emma have got me back fit and strong, which have made things more enjoyable on all fronts.

You came into the club knowing both (AFL Talent and Operations Manager) Matt Rosa and (CEO) Craig Vozzo well from your time at West Coast. How much did that help with your transition to the club? 

It definitely helped me a lot, I have a great relationship with Matt and Craig from my time with the Eagles and that played a big part in my choice to head to the Bombers at the end of last year.

They supported me quite a lot throughout the move and helped me assess my options, but they also have the club as a whole moving in a positive direction so it’ll be an exciting year for all the footy programs.

The younger players in the squad have spoken highly of yourself, Jackson Hately and Jack Peris for the mentality you’ve shown as teammates since coming in from an AFL list. How important was it for you to come in with a positive attitude, given your long-term goal of being redrafted?

Although I wouldn’t say (leadership) comes naturally, I did have a lot of great mentors from my time in Perth who really went out of their way to help me when I was coming through the ranks and I feel like there’s always a responsibility to help the guys around me.

I’ve been in their exact position and it’s refreshing to be around a young group who just love their footy and are looking to pick up on new things every day. I’m obviously not a 300-game veteran who knows all, but if I see people in similar positions to what I’ve been through, I feel obligated to say something and provide a hand where I can, as I would’ve wanted others to do the same for me.

As a whole, it helps the team.

You had the opportunity to captain the side for January’s practice match in Darwin. How did you find that experience on-field, given that you’d played in some relatively experienced sides at West Coast prior?

I think that’s the first time in my life I’ve ever skippered a team and I loved the experience. It was a fun trip and it definitely eased me into that position knowing it was for a practice match, albeit we took it very seriously.

Once again, you just try to lead by example and having a trip like that gave us a really good opportunity to build that bond around the group and it was an elite initiative from the club.

Once you were back in full training, you had the chance to join match simulation with our AFL squad throughout the pre-season. What did you gain out of that time and how do you feel like that’ll benefit the on-field connection when it comes to those players sharing the field with you during the season?

I wish I could’ve been involved with it even more, my body probably didn’t allow me too many chances at the start, but it was just so enjoyable to train at that level again and have that opportunity to play in the intraclub.

It’s a big thing in helping that connection with the AFL boys, we’ll obviously have a few of them dropping back with us this year and for the group to be successful it’s really important that we can build that trust both ways.

You don’t get that unless you can train and spend time with each other, so they were a great help to us over that time and hopefully we had a bit of that effect on them too.

With plenty of fresh faces in the VFL program this year, building a gameplan and identity can be a lengthier process than normal. What have been the focus points from the coaches for our style of play in 2024?

Without giving too much away, we’re looking to better utilise our numbers around the contest and generate quicker ball movement going forward. The game’s become pretty pacey and attacking, and we want to bring that nature to our game as a collective, applying heaps of pressure and taking on the challenge of keeping that up for four quarters at a time.

The coaches have been great in implementing that, but also understanding our individual strengths and allowing us that bit of freedom to play to those natural traits. We’ll fine-tune things in the lead-up to round one and go from there.

We’ve just come off a pretty solid hit-out against Sandringham and it gave an opportunity to experiment with the line-up and get a feel for our game in competitive conditions. How did the group feel coming away from that? 

It was a good step forward, for sure. Reviewing the game, it was a bit of a mixed bag where we had some major positives individually and with our contest method, but you always have a fair bit to work on as a unit.

The ability for us to support near the footy and set up around the ground is obviously a vital element of the game, it isn’t always going to be on your terms so working through that was a good takeaway for us and we’ll get plenty from that hit-out.

We’ve expanded our recruiting quite a lot within the VFL side. Out of this crop, who’s caught your eye in the pre-season?

Campbell Gray has come on heaps in the last month, he’s attacking aerial contests with a heap of confidence and Lachie Monteath’s been in a similar boat at the other end of the ground too.

Oskar Smartt has shown some really exciting things as a dangerous forward/midfield option, he’s quite explosive and powerful so he’s definitely caught my eye a bit.

Just seeing these young lads develop their footy smarts over this recent block of training has been terrific, hopefully it keeps trending that way and the signs can show on-field this year.

The Bombers’ VFL squad will play a practice match against Geelong’s reserves at GMHBA Stadium this Friday at 2pm AEDT.

While the game won’t be streamed or open to the public, you can head to @EssendonVFL on X for live updates throughout the day.