"For some reason, I just knew: 'I'm kicking this goal'," he says. "I didn't even think about the handball over the top. I don't think it was a selfish thing. It was just like: 'I'm going to back myself.' In the past, I probably would have gone for the handball or shanked the kick." Colyer was in the zone. And If that little snapshot brings to mind Hawthorn coaching legend John Kennedy's famous exhortation: "Don't think, do!" it's because Colyer is living those words a good 40 years after they were uttered. Indeed, they're playing a major part in his sudden progression from Essendon fringe player to a pivotal member of their best 22. In his sixth AFL season, all going well, Colyer will play his 50th game in the Bombers' Anzac Day clash with Collingwood. It's taken some time to get there, but after a halting start, the games are beginning to tick over regularly for the Western Australian little man. And in a team not overly stocked with explosive pace, his is rapidly becoming indispensable. Colyer's 12 games last season were the most he'd managed in a single year. But the last 11 of those came consecutively, culminating in a spot in Essendon's elimination final team. And two handy games to start the new year have only enhanced the view that, for the 23-year-old, a significant corner has been turned. "For me, it's been about narrowing my focus and trying not to overthink things," he says. "That's what I've worked on a bit with [assistant coach] Nathan Bassett, really just picking small, simple things that I can focus on."

Like his kicking, often criticised in the past, the usual knock that he was failing to settle himself before the kick while burning the grass. But it's instinct rather than technique that is making the difference. "I'm not thinking: 'Slow down', which in the past I've tried to do. It's just composure at that level. I know now that if I get five metres on my man, I can settle and have a shot. You just get a better sense of everyone around you. It all seems to flow, rather than being conscious thought." Lack of thinking might seem at odds with Colyer's thoughtful personality, but it's working. And it still doesn't prevent the intelligent and articulate young man from providing a good insight into his own struggles to cement a regular senior berth. "It just took me some time to realise what I needed to do," he says. "You come into the system and the first year or two, you're thinking: 'How good is this?' and just playing. You're probably not as harsh on yourself and don't analyse as much because the expectations of what you want to get out of it are reduced. "Then after a while you question whether you belong in an AFL environment. And you can focus on things too much. I think one thing I was doing was looking at what I wasn't as good at and trying to put too much emphasis on that. It's easy at times to lose sense of what actually got you drafted and made you the player you are.

"Last year, I was pretty disappointed not to be playing at the start of it, then I came in and went out again. So I said: 'Let's just put some good form together [in the VFL] and see where I am at the end of it.' By the time I did come in again, I was just ready to play. And it's just knowing that you're playing good football and being needed for a particular role rather than just being a generic player. You start getting a bit of confidence, and a bit more of your personality and flair comes out because the team is used to having you in the side." Those experiences made being selected for Essendon's team to play in round one against Sydney a more important milestone for Colyer than it might have been for others. And the reassurance has been reflected in the results, his disposal average currently in the 20s for the first time in his career. "I hadn't played round one ever before. This was the first time, and to me it was a big thing. Your round-one team is effectively the culmination of your pre-season, and how hard you've worked. I'd never been in a position to say I deserved to be in our round-one team. This year, I did. The first two rounds have been a good starting block for where I want to go. I guess the evolution of that will be impacting games more, and being more influential." Colyer says he's been spurred on, too, by the emergence of another player into a Bomber regular, small forward Zac Merrett. Seeing a younger, more inexperienced teammate of similar type grasp his opportunity at senior level helped crystallise for Colyer what was possible. Essendon saw it as well, which is why at the beginning of this year the club extended Colyer's contract by two years while he still had a season left to serve on his existing one. For him, it was another important show of faith after having already fielded offers from other clubs two years previously.

"It confirms for me that I'm really part of it," he says. "Not just a guy on the list, but part of the team. I just didn't want to go. Deep down, I knew if I sorted a few little things out, narrowed my focus, and got a better idea of where I was at with some real honest feedback, I could get there." That feedback has been provided by a range of coaches, not just senior men James Hird and previously Mark Thompson. Bassett, Mark Harvey and Hayden Skipworth have all been able to help build Colyer's confidence to the point he feels he can set a benchmark as to what's required of a player with his explosive pace. "Something 'Harvs' really harps on about is being an elite runner, and it's something I know I can bring to the side, hard, two-way running and high-intensity running. I feel as if I'm really contributing now and making an impact on the way we're playing, trying almost to take ownership of the type of role I'm playing." Like so many of his teammates, Colyer has also felt a massive burden lifted by the "not guilty" finding delivered at the AFL Tribunal after the two-year ASADA investigation. "Every guy is different, but my way of dealing with it was to try to take a step back from the things I couldn't control," he says. "I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. But I couldn't control what was going on in the media, with the club, with 'Hirdy', so I couldn't afford to worry about that. When it was announced it was just relief. They made the correct decision based on the facts. It's what should have happened."

Colyer disputes one popular perception about the impact of the saga on the Essendon players, though, namely the belief that it has drawn the playing group together. That, he says, was already the case. "I got asked about that correlation last year, but I think if it hadn't happened, we'd still be as close. We'd still be in this position because of the way we've drafted, the people we've brought into the place, everything that's been done to get us to this point." Of which Colyer's development into a key part of Essendon's push towards something as significant on the field as its travails off it is now a major plank. And that's something worth thinking about away from the ground. On it, however, he intends, simply, to just keep on doing.