The father of Xavier Duursma is expecting his son to be “reinvigorated” by his move to Essendon.
The 23-year-old wingman was traded by Port Adelaide to the Bombers in the trade period after five seasons with the Power.
Duursma bust onto the scene in his debut campaign in 2019 when playing 20 games, but he has been unable to recapture that form with various injuries restricting him to season match tallies of 15, 11, 11 and 16 since.
Now that he’s made the shift back to Victoria, his old man Dean feels it could truly rejuvenate his 73-game AFL career.
“We’re really excited for him,” Duursma Snr said on SEN Breakfast.
“It’s a new leaf, I suppose, in his football story.
“He was just really unlucky with some injuries at Port Adelaide. Once he started to get those injuries and then trying to come back too early from them, you sort of take away his main weapon which is his running.
“Then it probably wore him down a little bit and then he wasn’t enjoying it. It’s pretty hard to play your best footy if you’re not enjoying it.
“But I think he’ll rediscover his love for the game. I think you’ll see a different young man out there next year, reinvigorated.”
Dermott Brereton added: “His upside, if he gets fit, is enormous for the Bombers.”
There is another Duursma in the system at the elite level which is Xavier’s sister Yasmin, who plays for Port Adelaide’s AFLW side.
Yasmin’s father spoke of the opportunistic circumstance which paved the way for her making it to the top.
“She was a netballer and a dancer and the magnificent Pete Francis, who used be in charge of the Gippsland Power, saw her one day at one of Xavier’s games, kicking the footy with me on the oval,” he added.
“From then on he was harassing me to get her down to the girls’ program. She loved her netball so I said, ‘I don’t think so mate’.
“Eventually he hassled me so much that I said to Yaz, ‘Why don’t you just come down and do the pre-season, at the very leat it will get you fit for netball’.
“Right from the first night she absolutely loved it and she took it up from there.”
The Duursma production line is set to continue in 2023 with Zane expected to be selected inside the top 5 in this year’s draft.
He has bene carving it up for the Power and Vic County this year.
“You couldn’t get a more different player to Xavier,” Dean said of Zane.
“Zane is all flash, an excitement machine, big marks, fancy goals, all those sorts of things.
“It’s quite incredible that they’re so different. He’s a forward/mid and he can’t wait to get out there.”
Then there his 16-year-old Willem who has been plying his trade for the Power in the Under-18s competition while producing some quality senior footy for Foster.
Dean himself played plenty of footy over his career, his father played reserves for Hawthorn in 1960-61, while his brother Jamie totalled 59 league games for the Sydney Swans (25), Brisbane Bears (1) and Melbourne (33) in the late 1980s.
Listen to Dean Duursma chat about his production line below: