Jamieson Sheahan didn’t expect to be where he is now.

Not two months ago, the 21-year-old was on the periphery of Essendon’s starting line-up as a hat-trick of hamstring, quad and wrist injuries put his development on hiatus during the pre-season.

Yet, here he is. After not playing a minute of practice matches, he has confounded expectations – not least of all his own – by returning to the team for round one and holding down a place in a maturing backline ever since.

“I didn’t think I would play the first five,” Sheahan confessed.

“I didn’t do much training at all…I really only started training back with the group in practice matches.”

Of course, making it back into the team hasn’t been as simple as working hard and letting the rest come together.

Sheahan has had to fit back into the structure of defence under the eye of backline coach Wayne Schultz. It’s been homework, it’s been tactics and it’s been learning the art of the game plan as much as the grunt and labour that goes with playing VFL.

“I’ve had some really good conversations with Schultzy regarding my talk and direction on the field,” he said.

“I’ve had to learn the structures in the pre-season. I feel like over the first few weeks I was wrapping my head around where I need to be, but I feel like over the last few weeks I’ve been able to help structurally set up the team.

“Schultzy’s been really happy and he’s been getting feedback from the AFL guys that my talk and communication has been really strong. He said that my ball use, trying to overlap and create some offence from the back half…he’s been pretty impressed with how that’s been developing.

“The environment that we’re in, with being an AFL aligned-side, you have to fight for your spot every week.”

And it’s not a lamentation. Indeed, the endless, self-renewing challenge of earning your place in the team has kept the motivation and hunger to prove himself burning.

“It’s something I knew going in: you can’t get comfortable, you have to be performing every week and I feel like I’ve played some good footy and really been building on the structures and learning my role in the team.”

Overcoming his pre-season injuries to make every game has been proof of Sheahan’s improvement. As he reflects upon his first five matches of 2018, the first peak of personal and team performance came in Essendon’s 66-point win over North Melbourne in round five when Sheahan was named in the best.

“Our first game at Windy Hill, which was my first game at Windy Hill, was a highlight for me. I felt like we played some of our best footy, especially as a defensive unit.

“I probably had my best game of the year. We had a really strong win and a lot of that came from backline run.”

It’s a backline that is growing match by match in 2018. And against the odds, Jamieson Sheahan is growing with it.