Hawthorn ruckman Lloyd Meek says avoiding "complacency and being really strict as individuals" is the key to the club improving in 2025.
The Hawks shocked the competition after rising from 16th in 2023 to one straight kick shy of a preliminary-final clash last year.
And after a bold off-season that welcomed defensive duo Tom Barrass and Josh Battle, the 'Hollywood Hawks' firmly place themselves within genuine contention for the premiership.
However, Meek, who put together a career-best season in 2024 after many years of biding his time in the reserves, says the club is determined to avoid any decline in performance.
"There's a big part of going from 17th to sixth. We're just going to have to get better to go from sixth to first," he said onย 3AW.
"A lot of it has been our reaction time and our intensity. I think we got a bit of a taste of the pressure and intensity of finals football.
"In elite sports, you can never get too ahead of yourself, so we're really big on stemming complacency and being really strict as individuals but also as a team on making sure we stick to our processes and (knowing) what we do within the four walls does not change one thing based on what we become known as as a team.
"We do a lot of work on mentality and our mindset and being able to handle big moments. They're probably the key things that will hold us in good stead."
From an individual perspective, Meek's rise in the competition's estimations of him mirrored the Hawks' staggering run to September, a month where they have been starved of football since 2018.
The former Docker was deemed a project player at both Fremantle, where he was drafted with Pick 69 in 2017, and Hawthorn, where he crossed over ahead of 2023.
And despite initially "hating hearing that", the 26-year-old has embraced it.
"I always didn't want to use it as an excuse but then I'm one of the cases where it did take me a bit longer to come out and establish myself," Meek added.
"Age, physical size and strength are really 70 per cent of the role and then the craft, it definitely takes a while to learn the techniques.
"By no means am I a complete package, I've got a long way to go to get to that top tier of rucks in the competition, but it was nice to have the year that we did."
Meek was arguably one of the biggest improvers in the ruck role.
The Hawks tall ranked second for hit-outs to advantage, recording an average of 10.6 per game, slightly behind Adelaide's Reilly O'Brien.
He is also one of the most active ruckmen in the league in terms of score involvements and defensive pressure acts.
