The bare facts are unremarkable: 23 games since being drafted as a 20-year-old from Queensland with pick No.60 in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft.
He has played five of those games this season, making gradual improvements each week.
Even Bail's assessment of his season so far is modest, as he settles into the demanding high half forward role: "Personally I have found a role that I can hopefully build on ... try to just keep working hard and keep my spot."
However, as his tale unfolds, it becomes clear the 24-year-old had displayed more resilience to get to this point in his career than most.
As a youngster, Bail never lacked skill in the sporting arena.
A talented enough cross-country runner as a junior to run in state titles, Bail also hit a good golf ball.
Good enough, in fact, to still play off a handicap of nine at Southern Golf Club in Melbourne's south-east (teammate Jeremy Howe plays off five or six according to Bail).
He surfs when he can too, with trips to Indonesia - Bail studies Indonesian - part of his plans for the future.
Obviously his sporting talent extended to football too.
But for a long time it looked unlikely an AFL club would be impressed enough to draft him.
As a junior footballer in Queensland, Bail was, in his own words, small and skinny.
"(I was) more of a runner than a footballer and that was to my detriment I think," Bail said. "Between 18 and 20 I got a little bit bigger and focused on my footy and managed to get the ball more."
During those years between 18 and 20, the Melbourne-born, but Queensland-reared Bail played senior football for Mt Gravatt in the QAFL.
And starred.
In 2007, he kicked four goals from a wing to help Mt Gravatt win the premiership. The next season he won the NAB AFLQ Rising Star Award (just ahead of Collingwood's Dayne Beams) and finished fourth in the Grogan Medal, the state league best and fairest award.
Melbourne, aware of his progress, kept a watching brief before calling his name in 2008. Bail now had the chance he had been hoping for.
But personal matters made his first season at the Demons in 2009 extremely tough.
"My first year was a bit of a battle," Bail said. "Mum was really sick back home and I got injured and all that sort of stuff."
Bail's mum, Alison, had been diagnosed with cancer before he was drafted. Even with her support, one can only imagine how tough it was for the young man to move south and pursue a football career.
During the year, Bail's mum would bravely visit Melbourne, and he would head north too whenever possible. A close relationship he forged with an empathetic teammate Clint Bartram, who lost his father Steve to cancer the same year, helped him cope as her condition deteriorated.
Bail's mother died just weeks before he was chosen to make his debut against North Melbourne in round 19, 2009.
He entered that game having, for obvious reasons, missed several training sessions in the lead-up.
After sensing a twinge in his quad in the warm-up, the muscle blew up as soon as he took his first kick. He was gone for the game and the season.
Since then Bail has had little luck on the injury front. A fractured cheekbone interrupted his 2010 and a PCL injury to his left knee ruined last season. After playing the first seven games in the season, he returned to senior football in the final round.
While he admits the injury setbacks have been frustrating, he has experienced enough in his life to keep perspective.
"You just do what you have to do, do your rehab as best you can and just keep light-hearted, I suppose," he said.
"The hardest thing is match-day, when you are watching, but when you are not doing that you just have to remember it is not that bad. There are worse things in life, but it is definitely frustrating."
While wins are yet to arrive for Melbourne in 2012, morale remains high. Bail says everyone understands a turnaround in fortunes will not happen overnight.
"The pressure we put on the opposition is the main focus. That is where we are improving and then the attacking side will come from that," he said.
He is confident the improvement can continue even as the team faces a daunting stretch that begins with Geelong at Geelong this weekend.
As Bail wasn't playing when the Cats demolished the Demons by 186 points last year, he has nothing to say about that result. What he does say, however, indicates the positive mindset being taken into the contest.
"We won't be thinking of who they are or what their names are," he said. "If we put our plan into place and put the pressure on and hopefully make them compete, we'll be every chance and you never know."
Few knew what Bail had within until he was tested. After taking a long time to get his chance, he has pushed through adversity to get to where he is now.
The competitor within him sees opportunities rather than hurdles ahead.
"We're still yet to win a game, but we are definitely on the right track," Bail said.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
