Eric Hipwood is not the type to die wondering.

The 22-year-old had a career-best year in a number of aspects, but you wouldn't recognise that if you just looked at his goalkicking numbers.

The Lions jumped to second place on the ladder in 2019 after struggling to break away from the bottom four in Hipwood's first three seasons, with some of that rise attributable to the increase in forward pressure.

Hipwood recorded 42 tackles last season, up from 24 the previous season. But more importantly, 23 of those were inside the forward 50, while fellow tall forward Dan McStay also laid 25 tackles inside 50.

"Having pressure in the forward line is a must if you want to be in the top four," Hipwood said.

"It's got to be one of your assets that you have to have.

"For myself it was something I needed to work on."

Hipwood is exhausting all avenues to improve his game in a number of areas, with his accuracy in front of goal the main priority for 2020.

"My set shot accuracy was pretty poor in 2019 so I want to improve that," he said.

So how does he go from a streaky goalkicker to a consistent one?

For Hipwood, it starts by identifying patterns from his goalkicking chart and advanced stats.

"I look at everything, the stats are all there so you may as well look at them and figure out what you can improve on," he said.

"It comes down to the individual if you want to see that stat or not. I certainly do, I want to improve my game and I want to see that stat.

"We certainly look at the distances and the angles and where you missed them from."

*Hipwood's set shot goal kicking chart courtesy of Champion Data 

Hipwood doesn't have one real problem spot, but his focus is on improving from every spot on the ground.

After identifying any sort of patterns in his misses, the next step for Hipwood is to get into the same routine no matter what conditions he's under.

"I think it's putting yourself under match pressure and practicing that scenario all the time," he said.

"It's a little bit of muscle memory and practicing it all the time.

"If I'm under pressure or having a shot late in the game, it doesn't matter. No matter how fatigued you are, you have to execute your routine."

Hipwood isn't stopping there; he knows he'll become a much more consistent player overall if he builds his tank and if he can assert his dominance in the air.

"My workrate and running capacity, I want to improve that," he said.

"Instead of having one quarter I might not run as well and fade out of the game. As a key forward you can fade out quarter to quarter. I want to be careful that I don't do that." 

The quarter-by-quarter impact doesn't tell a complete story for Hipwood, but finding less of the football in quarters two and four after shorter breaks makes some sense considering his frustrations with his running power.

"Another thing is contested marking, I want to take contested marks. I had a lot of opportunities and let them slip," he said.

"I want to make sure I'm clunking them especially inside 50."

If Hipwood can put it all together, there's every chance he can go from a 35-goal a year player to one of the best forwards in the League.

The Lions will be hoping he can take the next step as they hope to consolidate their strong run last season.