Having played 20 games in 2025 - his highest number of games in a season - Lachie Fogarty is ready to get after it in 2026, remaining optimistic about the change he believes is ahead.
Heading into his seventh season in the Navy Blue, the small forward praised the freshness and versatility of the playing group this year.
“There’s a lot of new faces, new coaches, new faces, and we’re all really excited about what the new year will hold,” Fogarty told SEN.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of good numbers on the track at the moment, a lot of guys fit and healthy, looking as strong as ever.
“I think the results [last year] spoke for themselves. We realised as a playing group things needed to change, we needed to get better and improve. I feel like guys have done a lot of reflection on the year that just occurred, and we probably realised as a group as well what we need to get better at.”
With eight new Blues walking through the doors of IKON Park this year, Fogarty says the energy and experience of the new additions has been significant this pre-season.
“I can’t fault them, obviously Will [Hayward], Ollie [Florent], and Benny Ainsworth, it honestly feels like they’ve been here for longer than a couple months. It feels like they’ve been here for years already.
“Getting that age bracket, 26-28 age, and guys who have played finals footy and played over 150 games, I can’t fault them.
“They’ve come from very good sides and hearing their voices out on the track and any guidance they have has been very helpful. Whenever they talk, we certainly listen.
“What’s been most impressive to me is their training standards. They train that hard. Just the intensity, their defensive efforts. It’s been really good for us to see.”
But it's not just the new faces impressing as pre-season intensifies - exciting youngsters, Hudson O'Keefe and the Camporeale twins have also caught Fogarty's eye in January.
“Hudson O’Keefe really stood out, he’s a very strong boy and he’s very competitive.
"The Camporeale boys have really stood out too, they’re looking fit and strong. Benny in particular, just his ability to drive through the contest and release a player on the outside has been impressive.”
Despite last seasons outcomes, the Cat-turned-Blue maintains that the forward group will continue to go to work this pre-season with Opening Round approaching quickly.
“We still do have strengths, our contest work is our biggest strength.
“We want to balance our game plan, all three of our phases of the game. We’ve had Josh Fraser come in, he’s looking after our ball movement, and Ash Hansen taking over our backline.
“The beauty of our forward line group is we’ve got a lot of versatile players. We’ve got Will Hayward, Ashton Moir, Brodie Kemp - we have a lot of guys who can play different positions, I think that’s going to be a strength of ours, our versatility.”
“There are a lot of guys that can play up the ground, but also comfortable deep in the goal square. We do a lot of work on our one-on one-work. [Our versatility] is a really big strength of ours”.
