As the 2019 Season kicked off, Luke Hodge took a moment to reflect upon his first year at the Brisbane Lions.
Writing openly and honestly, he shares the big moments that made his first year as a Lion.
Here's a short snippet of Hodge's words shared on Players' Voice:
I wasn’t sure what to expect this time around. Last year was easier in a way because everything was different. Team. City. Role. All brand new. That meant the focus was pretty simple: meeting the guys, making a good early impression and getting to know the coaches. Expectations and goal-setting would come later. But this year was something else again.
We’d had 12 months together and made progress along the way. Where would our standards be this time? Where would the bar be set? I got back from holidays a little bit early and I thought I would check in for a few additional running sessions with the boys. At that time of year, you might’ve expected three, four or five guys going about their work. But when I looked around, there were 20. I was quite shocked.
Most of the group were younger players, all wanting to hit the pre-season flying. A lot of the time at a footy club you’ll find the younger guys will wait for the older ones to come back – usually a couple of weeks after they start – to set the standards. But here at the Lions it was the young blokes driving those standards in the lead-up to Christmas.
It was guys like Jarrod Berry and Harris Andrews leading from the front and taking the next step towards returning the Lions to the glory days of the early 2000s. It was Darcy Gardiner and Hugh McCluggage and Alex Witherden and Cam Rayner pushing everyone along.
There were plenty of other contributors, too, challenging the wider group to improve. It was awesome to see. It demonstrated to me just how much they were determined to get the best out of themselves. It also showed how far they’d come as a group in 12 months. They weren’t waiting for direction. They were setting it...
The Season Ahead
I know my best footy is behind me. I can still do a few things OK, but I’ll be turning 35 in a couple of months, so my role within the team isn’t what it used to be.
The boys don’t mind reminding me of this. The banter flies thick and fast around the club. The Rayners and the Witherdens of the world refer to me as ‘Fossil’ and any other old-timers gag they can think of. They’re cheeky buggers, but so was I at that age so I can’t be too hard on them.
Banter aside, my primary job at the Club as I’ve seen it has been to pass onto Dayne Zorko and the guys what I’ve learned through the years – and I’ve been fortunate enough to play with and against a lot of very good players, and work with some absolute professionals off the field.
Click here to read the full feature from Hodge on Players' Voice.
