PORT ADELAIDE young gun Connor Rozee wants to spend some more time in the midfield in season 2020, as he looks to add more strings to his bow.
Rozee - who led the Power’s goalkicking in 2019 with 29 majors - would love to join the likes of Ollie Wines, Travis Boak, Tom Rockliff and Sam Powell-Pepper in Port Adelaide’s engine room, and believes he can bring something different to the group.
“Obviously, I am a little bit of a different body shape to those boys,” Rozee told the media ahead of the first day of pre-season for the first to fourth year players at Alberton Oval on Monday morning.
“What I can bring that’s different is a bit of leg speed, and some run and carry with the ball.
“Most of those boys are really good with their contested ball, and hopefully I can bring some of that outside speed.”
But the number five selection in last year’s draft knows he needs to continue to work on his aerobic capacity to be able to run out games in the midfield.
“Endurance is the main focus,” Rozee said.
“It’s something I focussed on last year as well and hopefully I can put on a few more kilos as well.
“I like playing down forward, I’m happy playing down there, but whenever Ken (Hinkley) needs me to go into the midfield, I’ll be happy to go in there.
“I’ll keep pushing my case. I will try to get my endurance and body size up a little bit to help that out.”
Rozee was a shining light for the Power last season - finishing fourth in the club’s best and fairest in his first season - and he is committed to continuing to grow as an AFL player.
“I just want to keep building on how I finished off last year,” he said.
“Personally, it was a successful first year. I played all of the games, which will be my goal again.
“Firstly, I would like to establish myself in the team again and hopefully as the year progresses, I can push into the midfield a little bit more.”
The rest of the playing group will return to pre-season training at Alberton on Monday 18 November.