With AFLW pre-season officially underway, Dakota Davidson says the defending Premiers have their eyes firmly set on the 2022 season. 

Speaking on the Roar Deal podcast earlier in the week, Davidson said the team is hungry to take their game to the next level once again. 

“There’s definitely a target on our backs now I guess,” Davidson said. 

“We don’t want to get complacent in ourselves, we want to keep growing, keep getting better and keep developing our football knowledge.” 

“We rode the Premiership for a long time, but now it’s coming into season, and we know what’s expected to win a Premiership.” 

“Everyone’s gone away and gotten more time in the gym, more time on the track. Everyone’s so hungry for that second Premiership.”  

With a 2022 season that’s already felt the impact of COVID-19 with the delay of the pre-season period, Davidson acknowledges that there will still be plenty of hurdles the team will need to overcome to fulfil their ambitions of going back-to-back.  

One of those hurdles will be filling the gaps on-field, left by the retirement of experienced veterans, Emma Zielke and Lauren Arnell.  

Davidson said there are already plenty of players putting their hands up to take on leadership roles in the team. 

“With the loss of Zilks and Loz, everyone’s now in that mindset of, ‘we need to step up, we need to get around the girls’ and I think a lot of people have.” 

“We actually had a chat with our psychologist the other day about what it takes to be a leader, and everyone was so involved in the conversation, and everyone is obviously in the mindset of leadership.”