THE 2025 season wasn’t the campaign Caleb Windsor had hoped for or dreamed of.

Skin infections and illness derailed the start of his year, while time spent learning the ropes in defence kept him away from his most-natural, damaging football and led to his first stint in the VFL.

But the season might just provide the platform for the speedster to emerge as an AFL midfielder, all thanks to some lessons learned down back.

“It was definitely a change,” a reflective Windsor says.

“I had only really played backline in about one Vic Metro trial game, so I never really played the position.

“It was a lot different, but I kind of slowly got the hang of it game by game.”

Alongside the positional changes, Windsor was coming from a long way back as he fought for fitness.

“The start of pre-season I came back with an illness and could hardly run,” he says.

“Then just before the season started, I got my first skin infection, which was annoying.

“I was doing all this fitness stuff and then you get pushed back to square one.”

The infected blister meant time in a moonboot and 10 days on the sidelines unable to run, causing him to miss the club’s first pre-season clash and play modified minutes in its second.  

After returning for Round 1 against the Giants, the infection resurfaced and he missed two more matches.

No doubt the interruptions contributed to a mid-season lean patch as headed to the back of the bench as substitute for the King’s Birthday clash.

He lost his spot entirely a week later, bound for the VFL for the first time in his career.

Interestingly, while playing behind the ball didn’t appear to come as naturally to Windsor as his breakout debut season on the wing, it’s not a move he looks back on with regret.

“I enjoyed it heaps playing behind the ball… going into defence was a lot of fun,” he says.

“It was a good experience and it taught me a few things which definitely helped my footy even in the midfield.”

Time spent chasing an opponent with defensive responsibility may have helped Windsor with some of his own self-confessed shortcomings.

“It made me a lot more switched on just to the defensive stuff,” he says.

“It helped with getting back in the corridor and my (running) patterns for midfield.

“I used to have a problem with ball watching, and it helped me with that because I always had to be switched on about defence and where my player is.”

Losing his spot in the side provided the reset Windsor needed, and the opportunity to step into the midfield and kick-start his attack on the back half of the season.

Two outings as an inside midfielder were all he needed to earn his spot back in the side.

“I've been trying to play inside since I was 15, but I always got put on the wing. Going into the midfield was awesome,” he says.

“Setting up at the centre bounce the first game, that was pretty cool.

“You get a lot of adrenaline, I was a bit nervous at the first bounce with the amount of adrenaline I got.

“It was an awesome, awesome experience.”

At 20 years of age with speed to burn, Windsor showed flashes of potential in at the bounce.

His breakaway speed offers a point of difference to the club’s midfield mix, with only an improved running capacity standing in the way of a full-time move.

“Being able to drive my legs out of contests and stuff like that, it's been really fun.”

“It's a lot harder in the midfield. You do all this running and then you’ve got to try and body someone every minute.

“You get used to it, I'm still not used to it but slowly getting there.

“That's the main goal, I guess. Getting stronger, quicker and building my tank so I can play in the midfield and have a consistent year next year.”