What’s next for Dyson Heppell?
The Essendon veteran is seemingly at crossroads in his career after a slow start to the season. Heppell was substituted off in Essendon’s Round 2 win and his form didn’t improve for the following week with an ineffective performance on the wing against St Kilda.
Brad Scott on Friday brushed off the mounting criticism of the former club captain, explaining that Heppell is still a relied-upon member of Essendon’s best side.
“The value that Dyson brings is immeasurable - his leadership, his sense of calm when things aren’t particularly going well - and with a young and inexperienced group, it’s really important to have seniority around them,” Scott told reporters.
“The positives that Dyson brings are really hard to see publicly. You certainly don’t see them on the stats sheet.
“He’s a really proud competitor and he’s a really important person and player for us.”
Heppell has been on the decline for the past several years but the 30-year-old now finds himself without a defined role.
Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton can only see Heppell playing one position.
“With Dyson Heppell, Jake Kelly coming into the team (in late 2021 as a trade recruit) has actually really hurt his ability to find one of those (smaller) key position players to play in the backline,” Brereton told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“(Mason) Redman’s holding him out, (Jordan) Ridley holds him out, there’s three there that are basically (taking his right spot).
“He’s such a wonderful footballing citizen, it’d be great to have him in the team, but if he can’t play as a defensive winger who can get into the backline and create havoc by getting into the zone… if he can’t have the legs to do that now, his time is going to be limited.
“You can’t play him forward, he doesn’t have the leg speed.”
Heppell is averaging 15.3 touches a game this year, his lowest count in his 12 years at the top level barring the shortened games in 2020.
While Scott is set to persist with the 2014 All-Australian, Brereton is worried by Heppell’s lack of assets late in his career.
“I just see limited positions for him. You’ve got a bloke who’s one-sided, he’ll always swing onto his left… he’s not quick, he's not quite big enough to play in that pace mode against key position players, he’s not quite agile enough to take on a mobile sub-size key forward, he’s definitely not agile enough to take on a small forward,” he continued.
“He’s wing only. I thought for a while there… you might try and turn him into an inside midfield beast, but clearly they want to look other options in there as they build for the future.
“He’s very limited in where he can play.”
Nevertheless, Essendon’s form has surprised a few to start the season, with Scott’s men winning two of their opening three games.
Heppell signed a one-year deal to stay at Tullamarine late last year after rebuffing interest from Gold Coast.