For me, the theme of our pre-season has been pretty clear.

Mental toughness.

I think last year there were a few games where we probably let ourselves down in that area, so we want to go into 2021 making sure there’s no excuses for losing games that we’re in a position to win.

As a player, it really burns when you know you’ve left a win out there so I think that will be a focus not only this year for the remainder of my career – bettering myself and those around me every season.

At the end of last year, we farewelled two really accomplished players in Ben Stratton and James Frawley - two guys who were really important for our team and, more specifically, for the structure of our backline.

With a captaincy and four premiership medals between them, they were always going to leave a void behind them. 

But already we’ve seen guys like Sam Frost put his hand up to become that next pillar of our defence, as well as bringing in Kyle Hartigan who is a seasoned body and will really stabilise us with his experience.

We also have a lot of young guys who are determined to take the next step.

We’ve seen glimpses of CJ this pre-season and what he can do, as well as the likes of Scrimma, Dimma Hardwick and Jarman.

Our defence has quickly taken on a new identity this summer and I think the Hawks fans will enjoy watching this new generation of defenders grow together this season and into the future.

I think, having quite a bit of youth, we’d love to use all the positives that come with that as a bit of a weapon in 2021.

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I’m really motivated to not let the team’s age bracket be an excuse for us this year.

It would be easy to talk about losing the likes of Stratts and Chip as well as Poppy, Ricky and Isaac and give ourselves that ‘out’, but I think we have a group that isn’t overly interested in being patient.

There are some real opportunities for young boys this year.

As we turn our attention to the Bombers this weekend, you can sense the vibe around the club has changed.

There’s a sense of anticipation in the air.

Nerves too.

But knowing there’s a lot of our young core that will be out there with you is a bit of a nerve-settler – we’re all in this together.

The crowd element is something I didn’t really experience in my first season last year.

I think a few of our games in Perth last year were around that 20,000-people mark, which is the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, but I’m hoping we’ll see a lot more of our fans in the stadiums this year.

Easter Monday, for instance, is one game I’ve attended a few times as a fan.

I know what the vibe is of those sorts of games and that really excites me to be a part of some of those experiences this year

We can’t wait to show people what we can do.

I know there’s people that have counted us out, but I love the idea of proving a few people wrong.