“IT’S TOO fast and too demanding of a game to just go after one method.”

In his seven seasons in the AFL environment to date, Sam Walsh has seen all sorts of pre-season camps.

And while there’s clearly a fair share of hard work involved, the former John Nicholls Medallist put on the agenda that the 2025 edition in Lorne was centred around connection.

There’s been a host of new faces arrive at IKON Park in recent months, with eight new players walking in the door since October, as well as a new-look coaching panel which has seen wholesale change.

For Walsh, who returned to pre-season slightly early with that reason in mind, the chance to build a rapport and relationship with those new faces is central to the pre-Christmas block.

“There’s been a lot of talk around having a lot of new people: that’s footy clubs, there always is a fair bit of turnover. For the players, we’ve brought in some ripping guys that have shown they’re going to do the work,” Walsh said.

“There are all types of varieties of camps - we’ve been on some pretty intense ones. We’ve got a lot of new faces here, so getting to know everyone will be part and parcel. Then there’s doing the work too.

“We’ve got a few activities and team groups sorted which creates that banter - that’s why you do it I reckon.”

Walsh credited the impact of the younger players who returned to training a fortnight before their senior counterparts were due back, with a number of those more familiar faces still reporting early.

The way in which the 2025 campaign panned out was a challenging one for Walsh and the Blues, although the exposure to a group of emerging players (the Blues had seven AFL debutants last season) was a shining light.

Walsh said the Blues needed to double down on their lessons from the year that was.

“For us as a group, we need to get better in a lot of aspects. You’ve got to do the work and build confidence in your body, yourself and your teammates - if you can do that, good things can happen.

“We’re building to where we want to get to… what we want our year to look like and how we all want to be on the same page.

“For us mids, a lot of it is the ability to talk about how we want to look on the spread and in the contest. Being able to bring each into the game has been a key aspect.

“If we can create smart footballers, we can adapt to any time in the game, whatever it requires: it’s too fast and too demanding of a game to just go after one method.”