TO UNDERSTAND the boy in the orange boots, you have to know where he came from, and as one junior coach put it this week, Kyle Reimers came from from "a long way back".

Talent was not an issue. Reimers had loads of it, with a creative quality and a streak of aggro that found expression on the football field. And he always had a thing about boots.

In his first game for Western Australia at the national under-18 carnival in 2006, Reimers battled through the first half without getting a kick and, at half-time, changed into footwear of a completely different hue.

"He didn't get a touch, and after half-time he came back out with a different coloured pair of boots," recalls Alan McConnell, who coached Reimers through the Australian Institute of Sport-AFL Academy program. "Kyle's modus operandi was to change his boots, because he thought that might change his luck."

No one who knew Reimers was surprised, for the coaches who found him living with his younger sister in Bunbury had come to know a tough teenager who regularly turned up wearing something outrageous, and for whom football offered a structure and routine that was otherwise entirely absent from his life.

"He would do these eccentric things, and come with his hair dyed orange, although not as orange as his boots, I can tell you," says Trevor Williams, coach of Peel Thunder, where Reimers joined the development program as a 14-year-old.

"He never necessarily made a statement, 'Look at me'. He wasn't loud or brash; far from it. He was quite reclusive, actually. That was just him. It was how he wanted to express himself, and he would go out and play accordingly. It was his way of saying, 'This is me, and this is how I'm expressing myself this week'."

Reimers has not been shy about expressing himself in his first 12 games with Essendon. Against Richmond, he stood toe-to-toe with Matthew Richardson, thrusting his face into the personal space of the Tiger champion. Richo, it turns out, thought Reimers had kicked him in the groin, a misconception the 19-year-old corrected in direct terms.

After one of his three games under Kevin Sheedy, the then coach remarked that Reimers would end up being a good player if only he could stop picking fights.

Under Matthew Knights, Reimers has kept brawling, but also kept improving. He tangled with teammate Scott Lucas in a practice game, and on the Bomber Blitz fan website there is a catalogue of opponents who are said to have been REIMERED! One victim is Dale Thomas, pictured being mauled by Reimers, muscles flexed and mouthguard bared as he drags the Magpie star to the ground.

Knights doesn't mind the aggression one bit. "It's a combative game," he says. "His development has been fantastic over a 12-month period. We took him as a young 17-year-old and to adapt as he has to Melbourne life, and play with verve and energy, he's not intimidated at all. He's a delight to coach; he may not always be a delight to his teammates, when he's had a stoush or there's something going on, but he's really refreshing."

Nor does Knights mind the bright boots, even if pretty much everyone else Reimers comes across can't stand them. He opted for orange over black after a podiatrist advised him to switch from a pair that was hurting his feet, and has been sledged relentlessly ever since, by teammates, opponents, fans, and frowning elder statesmen who think young players should avoid drawing attention to themselves and concentrate on getting a kick.

It says something about Reimers' rogueish personality, though, that he has not taken them off, and even more about his ability that he has been one of the brightest sparks in a struggling Essendon side. When the eight-game losing streak was snapped against West Coast in round 12, he was at the heart of things, with 21 touches and a last-quarter goal that made up for the one he celebrated lustily, but prematurely, earlier in the game.

"He's not just the orange boots. He tackles, he chases, he takes the game on," Knights says. "He likes to kick goals, he likes to celebrate - sometimes a little early for the coach's liking, especially when it hits the post and his man's running off and going to get the kick-in.

"I don't want to squash his personality. Everyone is different, and it's important we see people who are different playing this great game.

"... We are educating Kyle on a daily basis, and he's developing, so I've got no issue with the orange boots."

Educating Reimers hasn't always been straightforward. Family life was difficult in Bunbury, a coastal town south of Perth, and junior coaches worked hard to ensure his personal circumstances didn't overwhelm his AFL ambition. Still, there were off-field lapses, and pent-up aggression sometimes came spilling out on the field.

"We had to understand that things weren't all rosy, and we had to give him a bit of support," says Gerard McNeill, the WA under-18s coach.

He had a bad carnival as a small forward for WA, and was dropped for one game after losing his cool. Still, Reimers held Essendon's interest with some strong performances in a different role, running off half-back, for Peel.

"He always gave you a sense that if he was in a strong, positive environment and he trusted the people he was working with, he would grow and develop," says McConnell. "When the ball came into his space, he could do some quite amazing, creative things. He really was quite an artist."

Essendon knew it was getting a player with rough edges when it used pick 47, the selection received for trading Dean Solomon to Fremantle, in the 2006 national draft. This season, the club has tried to smooth some of those edges by moving him into a share house with ex-Adelaide and now Bendigo Bombers player Hayden Skipworth, who was asked to be a live-in mentor to Reimers and 2007 draftees David Myers, Tayte Pears and Cale Hooker, all of them WA boys.

Reimers is not renowned for his domestic talents, but Skipworth takes his duties to four teenage boys seriously, making sure among other things that they eat properly and get to bed at a decent hour.

"He's good to live with. He wasn't a great cook at the start, but now he's pretty capable," he said. "This year, all the boys have noticed a massive change in his personality and his attitude. He is starting to come to grips with what is up to AFL standard and what isn't. He's still got a little way to go."

The improvements in diet, fitness and attitude are starting to show on the field, which is good news for an Essendon side depending on the progress of its kids to rebuild under Knights.

Which doesn't make the boots, of which Reimers now has two pairs, a universal hit. "We give him a bit a bit of grief about it," says Skipworth. "He knows where I stand, but he is his own man."