In some cases, the answer is more than a little surprising. Inside Henry Slattery’s mind, you’ll find a list of the best pinot noirs in Victoria, a smattering of Australian military history and the remnants of partly digested agricultural science textbooks.

Also, say people at Essendon, the hottest white-line fever in the entire playing group.

"I’ve taken a little bit of a step forward compared to last year," the 23-year-old says, but does not expect you to have noticed, nor does he mind overly if you haven’t.

Slattery does not get it easy from the coaches at Windy Hill. His list of assignments this year is a roll call of the trickiest men in football: Steve Johnson, Akermanis, Eddie Betts, Brett Deledio, Paul Medhurst and Brad Johnson.

These are the men charged with conjuring something from nothing, inspirational moments that often make the difference for their team. Stopping them can make the difference also.

When these men play against Essendon, Slattery gets that job. "They are all pretty dangerous players. I usually get the small forward who can kick a few," he says. "I have to make sure they don’t."

Slattery is a stoppper, a tagger, what "Aka" would call "a serial pest".

He rates his toughest opponents this year as Steve Johnson and Brad Johnson — the Bulldog because he is never beaten, continually presenting until he wins the ball, the mercurial Cat because he can beat you from anywhere.

"He is so creative in front of goals," Slattery marvels. "You think you have him, that you are doing OK, and then he’ll just pull something out of his arse. There’s only so much you can do to stop him."

It is a different mentality compared with that of most footballers going into a game — purely negative, or at least governed by that initial impulse. In a decorated junior career, Slattery was never that type of player.

At Adelaide’s prestigious Rostrevor College, he played for the first XVIII while still in year 10; he turned out in the SANFL seniors for West Adelaide when barely 18. But when he got to Essendon in late 2004, Kevin Sheedy saw a potential shutdown specialist. It has been that way ever since.

"They just identified me as a competitive player," he says. "I hate being beaten and I do what I am told by the coaches, whatever it is. I am not out to get as many kicks or possessions as I can. I do what I’m told and the coaches normally give me pretty good feedback on that."

Not many had him in their best as the Bombers ran out of puff against the Bulldogs in the last round, but Matthew Knights singled Slattery out afterwards for the jobs he did on Akermanis and Johnson.

They are stopping jobs, but he doesn’t much care for that . . . errr, tag. "I don’t want to be known as a tagger. I just want to be known as a good tough defender, a hard player to play on," he says.

Eventually he hopes to follow Brett Kirk and fellow Bomber Mark McVeigh, men who started in negating roles but made themselves into something more.

Not everyone in the AFL can be Chris Judd. Coaches love players like Slattery because they follow orders and because they willingly sacrifice their own game for the team. It can’t be said, though, that it comes with much glory.

"It is hard at times when you look in the papers. You know you did a good job on your player and you don’t really get noticed," he says.

"You look at the stats and it looks like you played a bad game. But I think you have to listen to your coaches — if they say you’ve done a good job, then that is good enough."

Not all of the stats are set against him. Slattery ranks No. 1 at Essendon for tackles in the defensive 50-metre arc. His spoils have also increased this year from 1.5 a game to 2.4.

Season high marks for tackles have been set against St Kilda, Geelong and Collingwood. He likes it tough.

Against the Bulldogs he took five marks and collected 15 disposals but, more importantly, kept Akermanis to just 18 touches and no goals.

When Johnson got on top of his man, late in the match, it was Slattery who was sent to shut him down.

Today it could be Deledio again, or the dangerous Robin Nahas. They’d better look out.

It’s a specific mindset and it is not for everybody. The tagger gets off on his ability to frustrate.

"You are very competitive and trying to stop your opponent at every opportunity. Most of the time they do get pretty shitty with you," he says.

"When they do that it is a good thing for you because you have taken their mind off what they need to do."

Each has his own methods. Some, such as the Swans’ Jared Crouch or Fremantle’s Josh Carr, are more extreme than others. Slattery doesn’t talk much.

"I’m not a yapper but I do scrag a bit," he says. "You have to make it frustrating for opponents."

Every time he is beaten he remembers it. Against Sydney he played on youngster Patrick Vezpremi.

"I think he got one touch against me," he says. "I haven’t had many goals kicked on me, maybe one or two in the last five weeks."

You get the feeling it’s not a rough approximation. He is the sort of guy who keeps count.

Players such as Slattery don’t get famous. Most who know him think first of that collision, when the youngster was knocked unconscious by Brendan Fevola’s flying knee as he backed into a marking contest in June last year.

It was an act that won him an end-of-season award for the club’s most courageous player, but left him with a fractured cheekbone and no memory of the incident.

He missed two weeks, but on returning began a string of form that landed him a top-10 finish in the best and fairest and has continued this season.

Slattery admits the Fevola incident was an unlikely turning point.

"I felt pretty lucky to only miss two weeks from it," he says.

"To be put back in the side straight away after those two weeks gave me a big confidence boost. After that I was more relaxed. I had been very tense in the first hard of the season, very hard on myself."