KEY forward Jesse Hogan says he’s looking forward to developing his leadership in attack this year.

The goalkicker said he was feeling calm, yet focused about his year head – his third since he made his AFL debut and won the NAB AFL Rising Star Award in 2015.

“It’s been a good pre-season and pretty smooth – I haven’t had any injuries so I’ve just been ticking sessions and getting my body as ready as possible for games. The pre-season has been really productive,” he told Melbourne TV.

“Over the next few weeks as we start games, I’ll start putting more of a focus on what I want to achieve this year.

“My focus going into games will probably be on becoming more of a leader and leading our young forward line. I can’t really say now how I’m going to go for the year but I’m looking forward to it.”

Hogan said he had been impressed with new teammate Michael Hibberd and mentioned that several others had taken their training to the next level.

“Hibbo, when he’s been out there, has been effective. He’s more of that older half-back that we haven’t had for the last few years,” he said.

“Jayden Hunt and Sam Frost have been dominating training with their speed and coming out of the backline – unfortunately I have to chase them which isn’t fun … and you’ve got Jack Viney and Nathan Jones.

“Jordan Lewis has been a wealth of knowledge and his experience is something money can’t buy, which has been unreal … it’s more the standard as a team that has really lifted, which has been really good.”

Hogan added that new senior coach Simon Goodwin had been exceptional over the summer. 

“I couldn’t speak higher of him,” he said.

“He’s got that perfect balance of mateship and being the boss.

“I can’t fault him so far, he’s been unreal and it will be good to see what he’s like in a game situation and see if he can keep his cool like he does at training.”