The extended absence of Jobe Watson this season forced his fellow leaders at Essendon to reduce their reliance on their captain to lead by example.
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Dyson Heppell - hailed by AFL great Wayne Carey as having produced "as good a half as I've seen for a long time from an onballer" at the weekend to spearhead the Bombers' come-from-behind win against West Coast - said the sidelining of Watson for the club's preceding eight matches had helped he and the fellow leadership group members - Brent Stanton, Heath Hocking, Brendon Goddard, Jason Winderlich and David Myers - to better fulfil their responsibilities.
"I think the leadership group has really grown in Jobe's absence. It's made others more vocal in trying to communicate better on the field without Jobe there. Because he's such a great leader, you sit back sometimes and leave it up to him," Heppell told ABC radio.
The 22-year-old's dazzling form - he is averaging 28.4 disposals per match in 2014 - has helped the Bombers overcome the impact of the absence of midfield general Watson until the Eagles match.
Rather than specifically stepping up to fill the void left by Watson, Heppell reckoned his performances were instead a reflection "of my natural development". He said a good example of that was being able to recover from being held to just 10 disposals at half-time to snare 29 disposals in the second half, which inspired the Bombers' surge.
"I've got 80-odd games under my belt now. I've played in a lot of close games in the previous four years and instead of waiting for someone else to really step up in those situations, amongst the leadership group we try and put it on ourselves to take control of those situations," he said.
"I was quite pleased I was able to ... turn my game around after half-time. Maybe in previous years ... if I'd had a bit of a poor first half, I'd probably tend to get lost for the rest of the game. I was just happy I was able to improve on that."
Carey reckoned Heppell had this season become "untaggable" by opponents, because of his relentless running.
"He's untaggable because he's always on the move [at stoppages], he's never stationary. It's just really hard for guys to stop his run. Obviously, he reads it really well and he goes and gets it, and has a beautiful balance at the moment of contested and uncontested ball," Carey told Triple M. "He's become their best player."
