ANOTHER year under the belt has Lochie O’Brien hopeful he and his teammates can have a bigger impact at Carlton in 2019.

As the Club passes the halfway mark of its camp on the Sunshine Coast, O’Brien will head into another season of AFL football after 18 games in his debut year.

Speaking to media earlier today, O’Brien said that the extra year of experience will hold the collective in good stead as the game becomes second nature.

“Now being a second-year player, I’m a lot more confident when it comes to structure,” O’Brien said.

“We don’t have to think about that stuff as much, we can just get back to playing normal football. All of those things we’ve been training around system is now habit.”

Rewinding back to 12 months ago, O’Brien was a new draftee heading into the unknown as he embarked on his first training camp as a Blue.

He said the way in which his new teammates have settled in and embraced the Club was something which he’d been extremely impressed by.

“It’s been pretty amazing the way the first-year players have jelled. The way ‘Walshy’ has come into drills and getting through full sessions just three months has been really good,” he said.

“Stocker is starting to get into the group and Finbar is becoming a cult hero around the Club, the boys love getting around him.

“This camp is great for the first-years because it’s their chance to buy into the team and build good relationships. We’re starting to really jell, with some team-bonding and dinners and that kind of thing.”

A conversation on the side of the track with a dual Brownlow Medallist unsurprisingly went down very well for the 19-year-old. 

O’Brien said the ability to tap into Chris Judd’s knowledge and experience was only going to help him improve as he looks to expand his game in 2019.

“It was good talking to ‘Juddy;. It’s so good having him around here for a bit of advice,” he said.

“I’m starting to learn a few more roles to adapt my game and coming from him, I don’t think you can get any better.”

On his own personal year coming up, O’Brien said he was over the niggles which interrupted his summer prior to Christmas.

“I had a few little issues which I need to get fixed up, so it was a bit of a slow start to pre-season. I’m getting to the stage now where I’m getting going and getting through full sessions,” he said.

“By JLT, I should be all systems go.”

O’Brien reserved a special mention for the contingent of Queensland Carlton supporters, who braved the conditions to support the players in the open training session.

He said the support they continued to receive was “second-to-none”.

“It’s been great. They probably weren’t the greatest conditions with a fair bit of rain coming down, but it’s amazing for the boys to have support all around Australia,” he said.

“From all of the boys, we’ve got to say a big thank you to them and we really appreciate the ongoing support.”