Fresh from a consistent first year of football, tall defender Dylan Van Unen will be eyeing off a senior berth in 2014.

Development Coach James Byrne praised the leadership abilities of the 23-year-old, who had made an early impression on the club’s VFL coaches.

“Dylan is that mature-age player that gives our younger kids in the VFL some direction and leadership because he has played VFL before,” Byrne said.

“With Dylan, we see a versatile player who can play on a tall or a small and has really good closing speed.

“He is very agile in the contest and able to work a bigger body off the ball which is a really strong attribute of his.”

Van Unen was taken as Essendon’s third-round selection in last year’s NAB AFL Draft as a mature-aged recruit, and has since worked closely with Development Coach Paul Corrigan to further develop his game.

“Paul Corrigan has done a lot of work with him and we see him having a big pre-season and if he puts his best foot forward we can see him playing some league football next year,” Byrne said.

“He is really competitive; he covers good distances for a backman, has good closing speed and is just a good leader.”

“He is a fantastic kid and it probably took a while to get into the program and adjusting to AFL lifestyle. He would say that it took him a couple of months to get into it but once he got going we really saw why we drafted him.”

With another pre-season campaign under his belt, Van Unen will be hoping to eventually make his senior debut for the red and black.

 “Obviously it is about building a fitness base and getting the strength to play on versatile players at AFL level such as the medium and small type forwards,” Byrne said.

“That is how he has to round out his game and that is what he has been working on along with Paul for his development heading into next year.”

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