Midfield bull Elliot Yeo remains as hungry as ever for team success and insists he still has room for improvement coming off three stellar individual campaigns.
This time 12 months ago Yeo was in a race to build his fitness following toe surgery, yet he still produced a brilliant season.
The ultra-competitive 26-year-old took his defensive work to another level – leading the AFL in tackles (168) – and was only pipped for a third-straight John Worsfold Medal due to onball colleague Luke Shuey’s sensational form.
While Yeo still picked up his second All Australian blazer, team success remains at the forefront of his mind after the Eagles’ premiership defence ended at the semi-final stage last year.
With boom recruit Tim Kelly tearing up the track, and emerging youngsters Jarrod Brander and Josh Rotham set to push even harder for selection, Yeo likes what he sees less than a month away from the Marsh Community Series opener against Essendon.
“We’re past that (semi-final loss to Geelong) now and obviously we’re onto bigger things this year and we’ve got some really good young kids coming through and a high-prized recruit that’s training the track down as well,” Yeo told Sportsday WA.
“Who knows, a lot of teams this time of year are saying they’re flying on the track and most of them are, but once you come round one it’s pretty interesting to see how things unfold.
“Especially touching on last year, certainly you’re always hungry for that success, and even getting a taste of it in 2018 you still want more and you always crave that little bit extra.
“It’s not like you get complacent on it and you get happy that you’ve got away with one (premiership), you always want more.”
Yeo has set a high standard in recent years, and is continuing to work on his leadership this summer.
“That’s certainly an area I’d like to touch and on and try to improve on. That’s something I’ve tried to focus on the past couple of years and really trying to work on as well,” Yeo said.
“But there’s a variety of different things, just small things, that I’d like to tweak on my game here and there, obviously I’m not going to give them all away, but it’s just small, minor tweaks that help you improve and become a better player.
“You can’t really get too complacent because things will come back to get you if you do.”
The Eagles have been buoyed seeing veteran spearhead Josh Kennedy and talismanic ruckman Nic Naitanui on the track this pre-season.
Unleashing Naitanui alongside Kelly should add dynamism to West Coast’s midfield in 2020.
“Touch wood everything goes well that Nic is fit and ready to go,” Yeo said.
“Last season he was probably playing about 70 per cent load (in five games), hopefully we can get that a little bit higher.
“The more time we can keep him on the ground, obviously the better off we are because he has a massive presence around the contest.”
