After winning Frankston's best and fairest and the Fothergill–Round Medal as the VFL's most promising young player in 2010, he was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the fourth selection in the 2011 pre-season draft.

[7] He was omitted the next week for the match against West Coast, before returning in round eight in the thirty-six point win against Brisbane at the Gabba, where he recorded twenty-two disposals and was praised by then-Essendon coach, James Hird, in particular for his courage around the ball.

[8][9] After playing the first five matches for the 2012 season, he suffered a hamstring injury during the first quarter of the Anzac Day clash against Collingwood in round five, which forced him to miss six weeks of football.

[11] After playing two matches in the VFL,[12] he returned to the AFL side for the twenty-four point win against Fremantle at Patersons Stadium in round thirteen.

[13] He played the next three matches before injuring his quad in the fifty point win against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in round sixteen.

[14] He missed three weeks due to the injury and returned to the side for the twenty-four point loss against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium in round twenty.

[15] He played the remainder of the season, managing thirteen matches for the year and was rewarded with the club rising star award as the best young player.

[28] He returned from injury in the three point win against West Coast at Etihad Stadium in round twenty-one,[29] where he was named the best player for Essendon by The Age[30] and AFL Media.

[37] Despite a drop in form, he managed a top-ten finish in the best and fairest, placing eighth[38] and he was named in Essendon's best players six times during the season by AFL Media.

He was suspended for two years which, with backdating, ended in November 2016; as a result, he served approximately fourteen months of his suspension and missed the entire 2016 season.

[51] In addition to sustaining a hamstring injury which limited his training further and he was forced to miss the opening match of the 2017 JLT Community Series.

[60] The Herald Sun's Rebecca Williams and AFL Media's Ben Guthrie furthered this notion by stating he had proven to be one of the top recruits in the league.