Essendon youngster Nick O’Brien has been working hard to improve his speed and power throughout the pre-season in the hope of more senior opportunities in 2015.

O’Brien did not manage a senior game this season despite being one of the stand out performers for the club’s VFL side through the midfield. 

The 21-year-old identified the key areas he needed to continue to develop to be able to break back into the senior side next season.

“I think the speed and power work that I have been doing is an area I wasn’t as strong at as I was in some other areas,” O’Brien said.

“I have substituted some of the endurance work we have done with more speed work and I have really enjoyed that.”

“Hopefully I have developed enough in that area to improve a bit next year.”

O’Brien harbours ambitions to be playing consistent senior football next season but understands a lot of hard work is involved to get to that stage. 

It is a tough ask for the young midfielder to break into a midfield group consisting of such names as Jobe Watson, Dyson Heppell, Adam Cooney and David Zaharakis.

“It was an enjoyable year in the VFL, obviously I would have liked to have played some senior footy but being under Skippy in the VFL throughout the year I was able to work on my craft a lot more,” O’Brien said. 

“I was able to become a bit more competent in the midfield which was enjoyable for me.”

“It is a different role I tried this year and it is something that I would love to be able to do at AFL level.” 

 “It is just still trying to train and compete with the guys at training and if I can continue to do that then hopefully another year of progress will see me in the seniors a bit more.”