Newly appointed co-captain Liam Duggan has praised the influence of some of his more experienced teammates and outlined how important they have been to him and the developing squad this pre-season.

With a fresh batch of youngsters arriving to the nest in the off season, and the club saying farewell to multiple West Coast veterans at the end of last year, the current list now includes 22 players under 22 years of age.

“Obviously there’s been a shift in the list, the energy is high, it’s probably higher than it has been in previous years,” Duggan said during the 2024 team photo day.

“That may be because we have lost some experience and some older players.

“But that just makes Jeremy McGovern, (Tom) Barrass down back, ‘Yeoy’ (Elliot Yeo) out there, Jamie Cripps up forward, Jack Darling, all so valuable to us now because we’ve got such a really young group.

“You just can’t buy experience, so having those boys around has been a massive help, especially for Oscar (Allen) and I as younger captains, we’ve been able to lean on those boys a lot and they’ve helped us carry the load.”

With training comprising of some high-pressure match simulation drills over the past few weeks, Duggan is pleased with how the group has been performing during this phase of pre-season.

"It's been big sessions for a few weeks now, so the group is in a really good space and we're handling the workload really well," Duggan said.

"The boys are getting quite competitive out there, so it actually does feel like a game at times when we're out training.

"We've had a bit of a new look to the pre-season with Mathew Inness (High Performance Manager) coming on board, so things have been a bit different, but the boys have adjusted really well and kept up to speed."

Originally recruited as a midfielder, Duggan has since evolved into premiership defender, but looks to be revisiting his role in the engine room.

Continuing to contribute in the backline, Duggan has also been assisting the likes of Tim Kelly and Elliot Yeo through the middle.

"I'll probably bring that defensive flavour a little bit with my background as a defender, and we've got some really attacking bulls in the midfield that we want to let play their natural game and show their stuff and express themselves," Duggan said. 

"Part of my role will be to help those boys out with the defensive things and let guys like 'TK' (Tim Kelly) and Harley (Reid) and 'Yeoy' (Elliot Yeo) get to work and do their thing, which we all love to see.

"Harley and I have been rotating through the backline and midfield, and using Luke Edwards as well, who has been really impressive this pre-season.

"It's exciting to see where that will all land, but I'm enjoying the midfield time and I think Harley is enjoying some backline time as well and working with those players."