PORT ADELAIDE ruckman Scott Lycett has his eyes firmly focussed on a strong 2020 season with the club embarking on its 150th anniversary year.
Lycett made the move to Alberton from West Coast during the 2018 trade period, and played 18 games his first season at the Power.
The 27-year-old has impressed in his second pre-season at the club, with the big man putting in a mountain of work.
“I’ve been really happy this pre-season,” Lycett told Adelaide radio on Friday morning.
“We’ve done a tonne of work. This is probably one of the tougher ones I’ve done, and usually that correlates into having a good season.
“Hopefully we are gearing ourselves up for a big year this year being the 150th year.
“I’ve done a mountain of work, like everyone does in the pre-season.
“I’ve been working on my forward craft a bit and a lot of stuff in the ruck as well.”
The Thevenard product said there was certainly an adjustment period when he arrived at Alberton, but he was grateful learning from the experienced Paddy Ryder last season.
“It did take me a bit of time to adjust, I probably thought I’d play a bit more in the ruck,” Lycett said.
“Obviously Paddy (Ryder) is a quality ruckman, so he had to spend time in there as well, and I understood that. That’s what the coaches wanted, and I had to learn more about my forward craft.
“I was still very happy to play with Paddy. He’s one of the legends of the game. When I finish my career, I can say I got to play with Paddy Ryder, which is pretty cool.”
Lycett was extremely disappointed when vice-captain Ollie Wines went down with a dislocated shoulder last week, but is excited by the prospect of some young players taking the next step in their careers.
“Young Joey (Atley) has been training really well,” he said.
“He’s a similar player to Ollie Wines, so I’m hoping he can put his hand up and play a lot more senior footy this year.
“There are other guys - Sam Powell-Pepper has been training the majority of the time in the forward line, but I’m sure he could go in and take Ollie’s spot.
“It’s really exciting in a way. People see there is a spot available and they will be training even harder now.
“Although it’s unfortunate for Ollie, it’s created a lot competition within the club which is good.”
Lycett expects the Power to play some strong sides in the Marsh Community Series, with the team to be selected after the club’s internal trial next Friday.
“We play our first trial game next Friday here at Alberton,” he said.
“I’m sure there is probably a few guys who will put their hand up from that game for the Brisbane game.
“I’d imagine we are going to play quite a strong side. We have only the three trial games, with an U23 game in there as well.
“I think we will be playing pretty strong sides most of the Marsh Community Series.”
Port Adelaide will hold its intra-club match on Friday 14 February, gates open at 4.30pm with the game to commence at 5.30pm for a gold coin donation.