AT THURSDAY'S 2009 Toyota AFL Premiership Season launch at Docklands, each of the 16 club captains shared their expectations for the new year.

Simon Goodwin (Adelaide)
"We’re looking forward to it. As a club we’ve got fairly high expectations. As a footy club we expect to play finals every year and we’ve been able to achieve that over the previous years. So once again that expectation hasn’t changed at our footy club. We want to be the best we can and obviously to do that you’ve got to play finals."

Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions)
"We’re shaping up well. We’ve had a good pre-season. It’s a bit unfortunate we’ve had a few injuries over the pre-season games so we haven’t been able to get our best side out on the paddock for a dress rehearsal, but I think the training’s been really good. The guys are in pretty good shape and I think we’re thereabouts. There are probably 10 or 12 other sides that are on the next rung after Geelong and Hawthorn."

Chris Judd (Carlton)
"We’re really hopeful to play in finals this year. We think we’re going to be a better side than last year but, having said that, we haven’t played finals for seven, eight or nine years. It’s been a long time between drinks and we realise we’re coming from a long way back. That’s the goal (to play finals) as it is for every captain standing here today but certainly I’m just excited about another year and hoping to improve on what we did last year."

Nick Maxwell (Collingwood)
"Obviously you need a lot of luck, so hopefully we can have a bit of luck with injuries, and we expect to be in it for a long way. We would have liked to have won the NAB Cup but from where we’ve come from during the pre-season, we’re very happy with the way we are and we think that we’re cherry ripe going into round one."

Matthew Lloyd (Essendon)
"Eight wins last year – I’d be hoping we’re double figures [this year]. If there are six games to go and we need to win three, that’d be a great result for us with a young group of players."

Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle)
"I think our young guys are going to be really well placed to have a serious crack. The best thing is with a young list, they bring enthusiasm and energy and that’s what we’re really looking for."

Tom Harley (Geelong)
"You wouldn’t find people who say football 10 years ago was a better spectacle than it is now. It goes through trends, but the game has an amazing knack of sorting itself out. I thought the way the guys – in particular our boys – played in the NAB Cup suggests that footy’s still pretty attractive."

Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn)
"I’m just excited that it’s finally here. We’ve been training for a long time, there’s been a lot of talk and we get to finally put things into action."

James McDonald (Melbourne)
"For where we're at, we can't put a number [of wins] or anything on it. We obviously just want a better team improvement and over the last four weeks of NAB Cup and Challenge [matches], we've got a lot better at understanding how each other plays and the style we want. That's helped by having a lot more players on the park and some continuity. Hopefully along the way we'll improve from a team aspect. And as the team improves, hopefully individuals will as well. I think it's really exciting with some younger kids coming in."

Brent Harvey (North Melbourne)
"I'd love to play finals footy. We've done that over the last few years and I reckon we're up for it again, but we've got to make sure that if we get there we don't bail out – like we have in the last couple of years. That's been really disappointing. If we get there, I'm sure we'll put up a better fight this year. We need a lot of consistency though the year. Our pre-season has been two wins and two losses with loss-win-loss-win – so we want to be thereabouts. We want to get off to a good start and we believe we can make the finals."

Domenic Cassisi (Port Adelaide)
"Every club goes into the season hoping to make the top eight and we're no different, but we just want to see a significant improvement on last year. If that means we're in the top eight then all well and good."

Chris Newman (Richmond)
"Our expectation this year is to improve and improve in different areas. I think we've had a pretty long summer and we've trialled a few things and worked on a few things with our game plan and structure. We're really confident that on any given day, we can be competitive against any side."

Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda)
"That’s the challenge for everyone coming into the season [to bridge the gap between Hawthorn and Geelong]. They were clearly the two best teams in it. We witnessed that in the finals, we were comprehensively beaten by both sides. [But] we managed to get one over Hawthorn during the year. That gave us a bit of confidence. I think it is going to be a very even year. You can throw a blanket over 10 teams who can play finals. If you win a lot of your close games you are going to be right up there come the end of the year."

Adam Goodes (Sydney Swans)
"In 2003 everyone was picking us to win the wooden spoon and we had a home preliminary final. We've played a couple of really good games in the pre-season. We know our game plan still holds up from those couple of games. If we can play the type of football we like to play, we can beat any team on any given day and that’s been proven over the last six years. We’ve got to start the season well and the expectation is to get off to a good start."

Darren Glass (West Coast)
"You can expect to see a much-improved side. Hopefully we can make Subiaco a fortress again and be close to playing finals football. It’s a new side and things evolve. We feel like we are our own side with our own identity. We’re not trying to emulate anything before us."

Brad Johnson (Western Bulldogs)
"Hopefully we can get things up and going early. We’ve got our full squad together now. With a good start to the year we can build our confidence and certainly get on our way again. We’ll be out there to play an attractive brand of footy which we know we can do quite well. Hopefully we’ll get the results on the board to have an impact."