A culture of excellence with a little fun thrown in – that was the message from John Worsfold in his address to the players today.

It was the first time the whole playing group (minus those on international duty) has been together since the end of last season.

Worsfold told the players the work they do over the coming months would be vital.

“We want to be elite in how we go about preparing to play in this competition,” he said.

“It is the elite competition in the sport that you guys have chosen, so it will challenge us at every level."

Worsfold said the best sides in the competition continually set new benchmarks.

“High performing teams – teams that want to be elite – don’t just sit on their laurels,” he said. 

“The challenge is if you want to be a great team you’ve got to continually get better and look to do things differently and be prepared to learn new stuff. 

“You guys have a lot of knowledge and we need to draw on that to help us become the great Club on and off the field that we want to be.

“A lot of what we’re going to do is about building the culture of excellence and elite standards. 

“AFL Footy is hard, it’s tough, it will challenge you – but it should be fun.”