Despite being only 22 years of age, Marcus Bontempelli is one of the Western Bulldogs’ most experienced players.

With a premiership and two Charles Sutton Medals in his keeping, Bontempelli took the reigns again as captain in the absence of injured skipper Easton Wood.

Despite his early successes, Bontempelli remains focused on developing his craft.

“It’s been another development year for me.  Each year is, I guess, because I’m still quite young and in the early part of my career,” Bontempelli told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“With Woody going out (with injury) it meant that I became more of a formal match day leader in terms of the captaincy.  It takes a bit of adjusting to - I don’t think anyone can really roll into that position feeling totally comfortable straight away.

“There’s a level of expectation, a level of uptake that comes with the job, naturally.  I think that it will benefit me down the track, but it’s nice to know that Woody is coming back into the role.  It spreads the load again.”

On the eve of his 100^th career match, Bontempelli had surgery for appendicitis, missing two weeks of football.  Although it was untimely, the break helped him to catch his breath and regroup to attack the back end of the year.

“For me it became a bit of a circuit breaker to sit back and assess a few things, let my body and mind rest so I could then launch into the last six weeks of the season,” he said.

“It did help (the break) to be totally honest, and it was good to finish off the year in a stronger patch of form which will give me the confidence to come back ready for pre-season.”

Bontempelli was used through the midfield and up forward in 2018, finishing with 19 goals while averaging 24 disposals per game.

“This year, with a less consistent forward line, there were probably times where I spent more time there and less in the midfield, and that’s going to happen from time to time,” he said.

“I’m still learning the forward craft, and how to play consistently as a forward.  It’s a difficult position to play.  I’m probably learning more and more as I go that it’s one of the toughest positions on the field because of the physical nature required to play there.

“At the moment it’s about finding the right balance.  I’m still working it out with the coaches and Bevo about how much time I spend in each part of the ground but it’s (forward line) one area I’m really keen to get a whole lot more growth out of.”