"It's no secret that the last two years have been so hard," Winderlich said this week. "With a young family — a two-year-old daughter and another kid on the way — I just want to enjoy my life, whatever I'm doing. "To be going into coffee shops and stuff like that, and you cop abuse. It's mostly just smart-arse comments, but I'm just sick of it." And so he stepped away, pulling the pin on a spasmodically brilliant but injury cruelled time as a lithe and skillful midfielder and forward. But the itch remained. As he walked off the ground following Essendon's agonising loss to North Melbourne in the elimination final, he said he was a "50-50" proposition to go on in 2015. Winderlich feels that links with rival clubs — one specifically — was overblown, although he acknowledges contact made with several other sides. But in the end, he wanted to remain at Tullamarine, so long as he received certain assurances.

"I had a good chat with the club at the end of the season, where they thought everything was moving," he said. "We're pretty confident and have been the whole way through that what will come out of it at the end that all the boys should be fine. For me I just want to know that the process was going to be done before I was going to play on next year. "I absolutely love the playing side of it still. It was just everything that came in between that I'd had enough of." The coaching situation at the club — perhaps the only issue harder to follow than Winderlich's position — was another crucial concern. In the end, Winderlich received his dreamteam wish - James Hird in the hot seat with Mark Harvey his lieutenant. "I wanted a bit more security from the footy club as to who was going to coach," he said. "They made a strong stance that Hirdy was going to be the coach, that's the way I wanted it.

"To know that Harvs was coming back as well was a huge decision. That pretty much sealed the deal for me to stay." Harvey remains a favourite of Winderlich's from his first stint as an assistant at the Bombers, even if his coaching approach has changed. "He was really old-school when I first started, but to see how much he's developed as a coach and as a person is great. "He's such a well-rounded person, I think with all he's been through at Fremantle and up at Brisbane, and now to come full circle back here, he's been brilliant for the group." The 30-year-old's primary concern is a simple one: happiness.

"For me, I just want to enjoy what I'm doing. Whether that was going to be playing footy or just going and running my business." That business, a timber recycling organisation called Just Eco, will continue to be a part of his life in the background. For the moment he is embarking on what has been a solid pre-season, assisted by regular visits to the chiropractor and maximum recovery. He is shooting for 18-plus games in 2015. Whether that is achievable remains to be seen, given 16 appearances this year is Winderlich's best haul since 2010. Despite Hird having arrived the following year, Winderlich has only played under the 2000 premiership captain 18 times.