As the 2022 AFLW season looms, the Lions are ripping in to their pre-season training with plenty of motivation and drive to back-to-back. 

Lions AFLW Head Coach Craig Starcevich said that the team is progressing well through the pre-season grind. 

“Everyone’s settling into pre-season pretty well, I think,” Starcevich said. 

“They had all already done a fair amount of work before we started, and they’ve handled the delay well. 

“Our draftees have been professional in their approach and are as far advanced as we’ve ever been. They’ve walked into some strong standards set by the existing group and I think probably feel a bit of responsibility to uphold them.” 

With a Captain and leadership group yet to be announced, Starcevich said that the 31-strong squad have taken it upon themselves to continue to drive their standards upwards this season.  

And it’s something that already has him predicting future selection headaches. 

“The older ones are the ones that have come back and continued the high standards. 

“But the younger ones that have got the greatest margin for improvements, they are really embracing everything they need to do to make those improvements. 

“Even though we had two retirees from our last game, Round 1 might not just be two changes but could be any number of changes because the group is already looking to be very competitive and very tight.”