FOLLOWING an injury-interrupted 2017 season, Max Gawn says a disciplined approach set him up for his extraordinary 2018 feats, which included All-Australian honours and a fifth place finish in the Brownlow Medal.

“I was extremely disappointed with 2017 from all avenues; from the team performance, my own performance, my body and something needed to change,” Gawn said.

“From the Wednesday [after round 23, 2017], I was on a pretty strict diet. I wanted to make amend and this year my goal was to not have an excuse if I do break down or if I do play some bad football.

“Luckily enough, I was able to play some reasonably good football with what I did over the break and the team was as well, I feel like a lot of players too the same mindset with them post that Collingwood game.

“I’ve set a pretty high standard for myself in 2016 and 2018, which were both my successful years. I had incredibly hard off-seasons [leading into that].”

With the players set to have a few weeks rest after Monday night’s Best and Fairest, the ruckman said there would again be no excuses for a slack off-season.

“The word ‘break’ sometimes gets thrown around, people and players, they think the break is ‘I’m going to stop working’,” Gawn said.

“In my head, a break is just leaving the club. We’re getting better at that mindset and the best players have that mindset.

“I see a break as training elsewhere and that’ll be what I’m doing again.

“My best football doesn’t come from an injury-plagued or monitored pre-season, it comes from really putting in the hard work.

“That looks like what will happen again. Next year I’ll go in with the same mindset and hopefully the same footy comes out, if not better.”