Like all young players, Tristan Xerri dreams of making his AFL debut and after an injury interrupted start to his year, he may be closer than ever to making it happen. 

Since returning from early season groin issues, Xerri has had a big impact at VFL level and credits new arrival Tom Campbell for his rapid development.

“Tom has been huge coming in. He’s a real leader amongst the group and he’s really had the confidence to speak up,” Xerri told North Media.

“We have a chat before and after every game to discuss how we’re going to beat our opponents as a ruck duo and what we can do better.”

Xerri, 20, knows consistency is key to getting a call up and he is using the recent debut of Kyron Hayden as motivation.

“Obviously everyone wants to play AFL footy. We’ve already seen Kyron Hayden break into the senior side after playing consistent footy in the VFL all year, so I just need to keep doing what I’ve been doing,” he said.

The coaching staff has challenged Xerri to improve his contested marking, and he believes recent improvement in that area has been key to his ability to impact games.

“I’ve been doing some extra contested work after training with some of the bigger boys like Tom (Campbell) and Maj (Majak Daw),” Xerri said.

“The coaches put it on me to do what I do best and take those marks, and as a big fella I need to be doing that, so that’s been a focus for me.”