In an often frustrating 2025 season laced with change and numerous setbacks for Essendon, Archie Roberts was a constant source of inspiration.

The 19-year-old defender entered the year with just three games to his name, but has played well beyond his years over the course of the campaign to emerge as a genuine star of the Club’s future.

Averaging over 24 touches a game off half back, Roberts’ season has catapulted him into Telstra Rising Star contention (earning a nomination in Gather Round) and even saw him voted by his teammates as one of the side’s three AFLPA MVP nominees for 2025. 

Roberts is proud of his rapid progress but is quick to assess his season as just the first step in a long-term game, wanting to establish himself as a cultural driver in the Bombers’ build for the future.

Roberts on… takeaways from the year, how his exit interview looked 

Yeah, the year went pretty quick looking back, even though in the moment it can feel quite slow. 

It was a good year on a personal level, but there’s still a lot of growth for me, which I'll be going through with my coaches over the off-season. Obviously, it was disappointing on a team level and we're going to be hoping to build into 2026 bigger and stronger. 

I think (a lot of my exit interview chat) was about continuing my work and what I did last off-season, which was just working pretty hard and going at areas in my game that need improvement and coming back into pre-season ready to go and better than when I left the club back in August. 

I've been working pretty closely with ‘Benny Jacobs’, as we also live pretty close to each other. We'll be doing a lot of work together through the off-season and yeah, he's going to be massive for me next season. 

Roberts on… whether his fast start has surprised him 

At the start of the year, I didn't really know where I sat and I felt lucky enough to be playing round one and going from there.

I didn't really go into games wanting just to be the best player. Obviously, I wanted to play well, but I just wanted to make sure I held my spot, was consistent and played the team role.

I think that's what’s most important - obviously the opportunities came later in the year for guys through injury, which was unfortunate, but we got to play different positions and got more opportunity in the backline as well. 

I do think I have surprised myself a bit. At the start of the year, I don't set out to win any personal accolades but as the talk goes on and people just come through, that sort of just came naturally. 

It is a massive honour to be nominated for those awards and I'm proud of myself for what I've done to get there. But yeah, we'll see what happens with those. 

Roberts on… a potential midfield berth in future 

Yeah, definitely (I’d love to get a run in the midfield) but I'm not going to be the one to make that call.

I'm trusting my coaches will put me in the best position for the team. I had a lot of fun playing that midfield role and it’s definitely something for the future potentially, but, yeah, I'm happy to play wherever it helps the team. 

I'm just looking just to keep building on my year and finding improvements in my game.

Yeah, if the opportunity comes to play midfield, I’ve got full confidence in myself that I've done the work to get there.  

Roberts on… growing as a leader

Well, at the start of the year, I was the second least experienced player in the team. By the later rounds, I was one of the more experienced guys, just purely based on how many games I’d played and I think I actually had to pick up that role with these younger first-year guys that look up to second-year players. 

I didn't change the way I went about it, I didn't change my persona or anything like that - I just sort of naturally tried to bring it along the way and help them wherever I could. 

There are guys like Angus Clarke, who I worked really closely with and we've built great connections together. I feel like I helped him and a lot of other guys and they've really helped me as well, it’s gone hand-in-hand.

Roberts on… setting the standard 

The culture that we're trying to build is one where people will want to stay and have long careers here and I know I'm going to be organising a lot of catch-ups and working together as a group. 

I found that really beneficial last year in the off-season when blokes did that for me.

I know for me, I’m going to be working really hard into the off-season and pulling players along with me for that.