With pre-season underway, essendonfc.com.au is opening the floor to the players for wide-ranging chats discussing performance, preparation and even life away from football in The Players' Corner.

First up, last season’s Crichton Medal runner up Nic Martin.

Back at the NEC Hangar with a notably fresh blonde dye in the hair, Martin's feeling rejuvenated following his off-season split between Melbourne and Perth.

Here, the utility discusses the importance of balancing footy with family time, taking extra responsibility as a leader in a young playing group, as well as his mentality heading into year four as a Bomber.

On… home 

Getting back home to Perth is so vital for my preparation as a footballer and as a person.

I spent a good chunk of my off-season being back there and it just works for me being able to see my family and friends. It usually serves as my debrief time and a chance to personally relax and reset.

I always do take a bit of time when I’m there to reflect on the year that we had, but with that I think it’s important to chill out and get away from reality.

Perth is very much my space to refresh and get away from footy, but when I’m in Melbourne it’s just purely about putting my head down and that’s where I get most of my work in over that break.

All the distractions are put away when I’m here. This is my work time.

On… mindfulness and mentality

You can always improve as a footballer physically, but you’re eventually going to reach an age where those increments are only small and pretty gradual.

There’s always so much growth you can get out of yourself from mental skills and your mindset and I’ve worked really closely with our Mental Skills Coach Ben Robbins to hone in on that.

You can create endless opportunities through visualisation and mindfulness in general, it’s actually way more important than people realise in preparing you for a gameday and what can come at you.

When there’s pressure on in big games, my ability to stand up, be present and perform is going to allow me to play my best footy.

I’ve taken a really close interest and put a lot of work into that side of the game and it’s no surprise when you read that the world’s best athletes are going down that path, putting just as much into their mental prep as their physical output.

On… leadership

You look at the age demographic of our list and I’m actually one of the ‘older’ guys now, which is crazy to think.

Even though I’m only 70 games in, going into my fourth year and turning 24 years old (in 2025), I do see myself as an older head in this group now.

When you have experienced guys like ‘Hepp’ (Dyson Heppell) and ‘Bull’ (Jake Kelly) finish their careers, it does put a lot of onus on the next wave of players to support Andy McGrath and Zach Merrett as leaders and drive standards for this team.

On… versatility

I still have a really open mind to where my best position is as a player.

Those are discussions I’ll have more with Brad (Scott) and the wider coaching group about what my 2025 looks like and where I’ll play my best footy - once I have a bit more clarity around the specifics of that role, I can go to work on it and improve the craft.

I’m really happy more so with the versatility that I possess and my ability to float between roles. It’s such a great asset and tool to have for the team.

On… the coaches

One of the bonuses for me in playing different positions is being able to get different perspective from each of the line coaches.

They’re all experienced individuals in their own right with different sources of knowledge, and in playing around the ground I get to spend time with and learn from each of them at different stages.

I’ve built up really strong relationships with them and look to pick their brain as much as I can, which is really helpful. ‘Gia’ (Daniel Giansiracusa) and Ben Jacobs are the two who I’ve found myself leaning on most, especially last year when I was moving between defence and the middle.

On… ambition

I’ve never really been one for ‘specific’ goals.

Everything I do footy-wise is really process-driven and it’s as simple as being better every day. I don’t like attaching myself to end goals and I feel like that’s a shared approach among the team.

If you set yourself specific goals – say it’s a win-loss record – and you reach that, where do you go from there? Why put limits on yourself?

When you eliminate those goals, the possibilities are endless.

On… moving forward 

It’s always interesting when you review a season and try to move onto another.

A natural part of it is wanting to get all the answers, wrapping your head around how things unfolded and figuring it all out. As a group, the most important thing for us has been not to lose sight of the emotions we felt at the end of the year and the anger (or frustration) attached to how our season ended.

Coming into a new year of footy, there’s always a lot of optimism and we embrace that, but we don’t want to wash away the emotion of dropping games we felt we should’ve been more competitive in and ones that we can use as motivation to get better.

We want to come in every day with an optimistic, positive, exciting output and outlook on things, but it is still fuelled by a lot of that frustration.