It’s hard to believe Jye Caldwell’s already entering his seventh season at AFL level and a fifth in the red and black.

The midfielder’s inspired form throughout 2024 cemented himself as a fan-favourite for the Dons faithful, with his self-described ‘bash-and-crash’ style of play seen by many as a hallmark for the type of on-field leadership that can form a strong AFL midfield.

While the public were on hand to witness the 24-year-old’s push for career-high averages in nearly every statistical category last season, the lesser-known storyline was the hip issue he’d been nursing not just during this impressive run of form, but over the last two years in general.

In any club, players battling injury isn’t much of a surprise – it’s a long season after all, and the rigours of professional sport will always extract a toll – but Caldwell’s resilience in playing through the pain showed his commitment to the cause.

Undergoing surgery in the off-season to tidy up the injury, Caldwell’s now pushing to be available for the Bombers’ Opening Round fixture against the SUNS, a prospect he admits has been a driving force for his pre-season.

Here, Caldwell opens up on his 2024 campaign, racing the clock to prove his fitness, his relationships around the club and his leadership ambitions going forward.

Playing through the pain barrier 

It's pretty challenging playing through injury and definitely a lot harder than I thought.

I had my share of troubles early in my career and I’ve carried this hip issue for about two years on-and-off, which people probably wouldn’t know. It can be tough to give your best when you’ve got lingering niggles hanging around and there are always a lot of guys that play through them at the end of seasons.

I had to receive a lot of additional treatment at different stages just so I could stay out there, before I was properly able to give it a clean out over this off-season and get into my rehab program.

Hopefully it’ll feel a lot better heading into 2025.

Racing the clock 

I’ve been thinking about it heaps recently, that feeling of racing against the clock for Opening Round.

With that though, there are a lot of different ways to approach it. The way I play footy is obviously a bit of a bash-and-crash type operation and if I’m rolling with that from pre-season all the way through, I don’t want to end up feeling completely battered by the time we’re finishing the year.

I can focus pretty heavily on my conditioning and the running I need to do now, so when the contact and game stuff comes around, I’ll be feeling pretty fresh – it might take me a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of it, but in the long haul it’ll be the most beneficial outcome for me getting through the season.

The importance of locker room presence

I struggled a fair bit with the transition (moving to a Victorian club) in the early days, just because it was so daunting.

I thought going from one club to another and getting used to the day-to-day wouldn’t be much difference, but it ended up being quite a big shock for me.

Part of that was definitely going from a smaller club to a big club but it made me understand how important it’s become for me to get around the young boys when they come in straight away.

It can be a scary prospect for new people coming into a footy club, so I always try to put myself in their shoes and remind myself of how I felt back then, trying to establish those friendships.

As a club, we’ve created a pretty strong groundwork with that where we make sure everyone feels as welcome as possible. Even though I’m not training with the main group, you still find ways to be a presence in the locker room and around the gym.

Our draftees and recruits are in a unique spot this year with eight of them all coming through as a group, which is a really good thing in itself. The last thing you want is to feel alone and they’ve already got a group around them for support.

Connections, built on trust

‘Guelf’ (Matt Guelfi) and I have lived together for about a year now and ever since I came to the club four years ago, we’ve been really good mates.

We’ve grown together with each year and in saying that, there’s a fair few of us who’ve fit into that over the past few seasons. It’s a real focus for us to build connection with the younger players and it’s super important with the group we’ve got coming through now to really build on those connections.

We’re all good friends (in that midfield mix) but the important thing is that we trust each other and that trust starts at the football club.

If you don’t have those connections, you limit your opportunities to play free-flowing footy and when you do, the game can just roll on as you go.

Everyone in that group has great flexibility, with guys who are capable of spreading to half back, half forward and the wing – that’s where the game is going.

It’s hard to explain but that was how I felt towards the back end of last season especially - you go through your pre-season building that bond and trust as a group, you go through the rounds and it just happens naturally.

Setting the example

Going into my seventh year, I do have to look back and go ‘jeez, I’m really not that young anymore’.

Other leaders, and some really good ones at that, are strong communicators but in the future, I just want people to respect the maximum effort they see from me out there, give 100 per cent and buy into it.