He hails from one of the most footy-centric, competitive, high performing sporting families in the country, and that's been clear in Xavier Duursma's performance with Essendon over the last year and in this pre-season.

Despite a couple of injury setbacks preventing Bomber fans from seeing Duursma's complete output from the wing last year (15 games total), his courageous and hard-running play from his opportunities made him a quick favourite among the faithful.

Over the course of a year in the red and black following five seasons with Port Adelaide, Duursma has relished being closer to his hometown of Gippsland and the 'all systems go' family which shaped his sporting youth, as well as the culture shock of fronting up to 70,000 people on a week-to-week basis in Melbourne.

Approaching the end of a pre-season that's held tight competition for spots following the Bombers' notable list changes, both in his wing role and across the board, Duursma chatted to essendonfc.com.au about his mindset heading into year two as a Don and gives insight into the Club's pre-season more broadly.

'The people we've got here have really grown'

It's feeling really exciting at the moment and I have plenty of optimism for the year ahead.

The group has really gelled together and I feel like there's a common goal in terms of the age groups we have and what our list profile looks like. There are going to be a lot of these boys playing together now over a long period.

There’s a fair amount of gelling that's happened over this pre-season and I think that everyone's taken a step forward with their professionalism as well, which will bode well for us as the year goes on.

Maybe that feeling does translate or come down to our list changes a little bit, but I also think the people that we’ve got here have really grown as players.

We're facing everything head-on, we want to get better, we want to be attacking it all as well as we can. We know that our second half of the year dropped off a fair bit, so we're addressing that in all the best ways we can.

We’ve gone through it as a group and have been doing a lot of stuff together outside of footy as well, so that general feel of the group is really exciting and we're all pretty positive right now.

Just catching up with the boys for a coffee, having lunches and dinners together on our days off and after training has been good to help grow that connection between us as well.

There are various other things like that, I’ve been doing breathwork and those kind of things with Andy (McGrath) and Pando Society as well, so all those little things start to add up.

The first thing we have to do is get our own stuff right and then you can start helping everyone else around you. As I've talked about before, it comes down to that professionalism on and off the field, constantly asking ‘how can we make ourselves better? How can we develop ourselves’?

That's where mastering your own lane comes in.

I can't help anyone else or set examples for the team unless I'm getting my own stuff right first, so that’s what we’re talking about and I feel like the boys have done a really good job of getting their improvements in, working to get better.

Growing accustomed to the Melbourne footy bubble

Just the overall feeling of being at a big Melbourne club and wearing the red and black has been really cool over the last year.

It's pretty hard to describe, especially on days like Anzac Day and even just with our average crowd being so massive in the first place, it's incredible to be out there.

You’re constantly playing in front of 70-80,000 at the MCG and 45-50,000 at Marvel, it’s very eye-opening and exciting to get used to, so I feel very lucky and very privileged to be able to do it.

Having that second pre-season here has really helped get me more comfortable and I'm looking forward to experiencing all of that again and even more.

Football's most competitive family?

It means a lot now to be able to see my mum and dad, my brothers and sisters, and be closer to my mates and extended family as well.

Being near them, just being able to get home with a two-hour drive instead of an hour flight and then a three-hour drive from the airport makes everything so much easier.

Being around everyone just makes me feel so much more comfortable within myself.

When you're having a bad day or anything like that, you've got a good, strong support network a lot closer to me. It’s not just when I need support either, even the fact that they’re present to celebrate the little wins, being in the rooms after a game and moments like that.

Having the fun and support of not only being around the boys but also with my family and hometown friends is massively important to me.

It is enjoyable and we all have a pretty close bond still, but we've always been really competitive with each other, which is pretty fun. A lot of smack gets talked when we go home and we’re competing in backyard footy, cricket, basketball, the whole lot.

I’d call it a friendly rivalry. We’ve obviously had moments in the past where things have boiled over, which we can laugh about now, but it goes back to having that network and that normality of my childhood growing up.

My younger sister and my younger brothers have definitely asked me questions and leaned on me a fair bit when it comes to the demands of an AFL schedule.

The AFL lifestyle and everything attached to it can bring anyone down, no matter how good or how bad you're going. My siblings have definitely needed support and I’ve been able to extend a hand to them and give them advice wherever I can.

I like to do as much as I can for them, because I've been in similar positions when I was younger myself and I still go through all those feelings now. I feel like it's helped them out a bit and I'm continuing to do that stuff as we speak.

My brother’s going through some hamstring stuff for his first real soft tissue injury and I've done a few of them too, so I've been able to try and help him with rehab advice as much as I possibly can.

You operate within limits, being on rival teams and all, but (Zane's) my brother, I love him and I want him to have the best career he possibly can.

Creating a competitive environment

The kids coming in (the last couple of years) have been massive.

Having guys like Archie Roberts, Saad El-Hawli and Luamon Lual training really well out on the wings is a pretty good reminder that I definitely can't get complacent, because they’ll be kicking me out of my spot otherwise.

I expect to see them all playing AFL footy at some stage – ‘Robbo’ has already done it, but even just watching ‘Saady’ and Luamon challenging each other on the wing all pre-season has been fantastic.

I need to be making sure that I'm working as hard as I can and getting everything right.

I obviously want to get the most out of my career, play for as long as I can and be successful, so with those younger boys knocking down the door, I can’t afford to be complacent.

It’s exciting for the club.

(What my best position looks like this year) is an interesting question.

I feel like the Coaches this year still see me as more of a pure winger in terms of my role and I can definitely play different positions, which I showed last year as a high forward and bits of half back.

While I definitely can play that, a majority of what the coaches want is for me to just nail my wing role and be really consistent out there at all times.

It's on me to make sure I give this team the most solid option I possibly can and ideally be even more than that.