Coming into an AFL environment fresh out of high school is a unique adjustment, especially for a top 10 draft pick.

Archie Perkins has adapted with that learning curve over four seasons at the elite level, finding ways to stay composed both on and away from the MCG turf, dealing with the pressures that come with the territory for first-round selections in the social media era.

With Essendon welcoming seven new draftees this year, it brings those early memories for Perkins back to the fore, a reminder of the fish-out-of-water scenario that comes around for a talented group of teenagers every year.

On this edition of The Players’ Corner, Perkins opens up on the pressures of the early years in the AFL system, managing external attention and the importance of finding balance away from the game.

A time of change

Personally, it’s felt kind of funny coming into this pre-season compared to others.

You have eight or nine new players come in and those train-on spots also become available throughout pre-season, so it’s essentially a quarter of the list that’s been turned over in the space of a few months.

It’s exciting when you have the draftees come in with smiles on their faces and they bring such a good energy to the group – it’s been really nice just meeting them all and getting to know them early.

There isn’t as much pressure at this time of year, the weather’s nice outside and everyone’s just loving being back around each other, so the energy’s always really high.

Adapting to the AFL system

It’s a very foreign environment when you first come into a professional football team straight out of high school.

You feel like a fish out of water in those first few days and weeks, getting a feel for things and just learning the routines, systems, practices, all those little things that make up how you go about your day-to-day.

It’s helpful having multiple people, or even one person, in the same position as you and going through the same feelings. You can always relate to those boys and if you’re feeling uncomfortable, they’re probably going through similar things or dealing with the transition in their own ways.

In my experience, the older boys have always made a really good effort to make sure the new players feel comfortable and welcome enough to just come for a chat.

There’s no such thing as a silly or stupid question at a footy club and as a young kid coming in, that’s all you want. You need to reach out to those guys because it really can be quite daunting in those early days - it’s so easy to stress out or feel like you’re not doing things the right way.

Dealing with external pressure

You’re pretty well educated at this level and you get told quite early that reading into external media isn’t very helpful for you as a player.

I think I’ve been pretty good with (handling) that in my career so far, generally. The biggest piece of advice I’d give to a young player and even to myself at times is to just stay consistent and level-headed regardless of how you’re going on the track or in games.

Whether you think you’re going really well or you’re struggling, footy is a really random game – things just don’t go your way and not through any fault of your own sometimes, so it’s easy to go on a rollercoaster in that way.

When you’re playing well, you can feel the highs, read those pieces that are pumping you up and tell you how good you are and it’s so easy to feed into that.

It can also go the exact same the other way too, so I think it’s just really important to focus on the people that matter, those being your teammates, your coaches and the staff inside, as well as yourself and how you’re feeling.

As much as it’s hard to completely ignore those external voices, it’s just important to take it with a grain of salt. I’ve been on that rollercoaster at times with my career where you think things are going okay and in the right direction, just to suddenly think you’re going no good a couple of weeks later.

You need to be in touch with how you’re going, stay focused on the things you know are important and the actions that’ll allow you to get where you want to be and really try to align to that.

Study and work-life balance

I’ve been doing part-time university since my second season, in that first year out of school I just wanted to focus on footy and get used to the environment of the club.

I almost wouldn’t even call it part-time, it seems to take you four times as long to finish compared to the regular full-time students. It’s quite funny walking into every new class and it’s like I’m getting older but all the other students coming through are just getting younger and younger.

I’ve always valued that education away from footy, mostly because we do have that great job as a professional sportsman, but you can definitely trick yourself into thinking that everything’s covered and you’re all good, coming home at 3pm and sitting on the couch like you’re done for the day.

You’ve got to continue to learn new things away from the game as much as you can.

You need to be well-versed in different aspects of life away from footy and university is just one of those for me, but I’m continually trying to learn new perspectives from people outside of footy and people who work in different areas, gaining an understanding of what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Compartmentalising is a really good skill to have, because it’s bloody hard not to think about football sometimes.

Managing personal expectations

For me, one of the biggest lessons coming away from last season was that I just overthought and overcomplicated things too much.

As a human, when things aren’t going your way like they weren’t for me last year, your natural instinct is to overthink and use all your energy understanding why things are happening that way and preventing it from happening again. 

I just needed to get back to trusting my ability. The people at Essendon have shown that confidence in me, they’re quick to remind me of what I can produce at this level and there’s no reason I can’t get back to that and improve even further.

I think I’ve still got so much scope for improvement in my game.

Back to basics

Confident, attacking football is what I find natural and I’ll definitely have a few lessons from last year to take forward with me.

If I’m training with intent, aggression and intensity and I can bring that to games, I’d like to think I can play well anywhere on the ground, whether that’s more forward or midfield.

What comes naturally to me is an offensive game and I feel like that’s where I can give the most benefit to the team, but the contested side of my game also lends itself to the midfield group as well at times.

A nice blend between both is what I’m aiming for.

In the last few years, I’ve had blocks of pre-season where I’ve missed weeks through various injuries and the like, so I’m hoping to get through this one unscathed and have as many sessions under my belt as possible. Ideally that’ll set me up for a good year, regardless of position on the ground.

Reflecting, looking ahead

It's always a tricky balance in the off-season, reviewing the season that’s been while looking forward.

It’s important to mostly move on from the year and remain upbeat, positive and confident in your pre-season - it’s a time where there’s less pressure and you can go out there and just put all your focus into training well and finding consistency.

There’s no use thinking only about the 2024 season while I’m out there going to work.