Rockliff, who capped an outstanding season by taking home the Best and Fairest award in October, says that the focus this pre-season is well and truly team-based.
When asked if he felt pressure off the back of his sterling performance last season, he made it clear that a player can’t win a game on their own.
“I absolutely feel pressure to go and perform every week, but I’m not going to go out there and try to break games apart by myself,” Rockliff said.
“I need the boys next to me to perform, and they need me to perform.”
“It’s about 22 blokes contributing on the day and in this pre-season, we need 47 blokes contributing for 10 weeks and that’s the most important thing for us at the moment.”
Rockliff also said that the expectation was on the “bottom half” of players to take strides towards improvement.
With players like Jonathan Brown and Daniel Merrett looking fit and ready for the season ahead, Rockliff stressed that it shouldn’t be the top players’ responsibility to carry the team.
“If we can keep Rog and Browny out on the ground this year it’s going to lift us again, but it’s got to come from the bottom half of the group, not the top half,” Rockliff said.
“The bottom half has to push and put pressure on that top half and it’s only then that everyone goes to a new level.”
After an unlucky year of injuries for the Lions, a greater number of players will be pushing for senior selection in 2012 with the vast majority at full fitness.
Rockliff believes that this supply of players will produce some positive competition.
“It’s going to build a good competitive environment and in the new year it will go up another notch probably,” he said.
“I’d love to go to another level, and hopefully we can as a group, because it’s definitely not about me.”
“I want to play my first finals game this year and it’s not about what I can do - it’s about what the group can do.”
The Lions are spending their first week of pre-season at training camp on the Sunshine Coast. Keep an eye on lions.com.au for all the exclusive news, diairies, and video from Noosa.
