UNMOVED by his personal achievements, Brisbane Lions midfielder Daniel Rich says the pain of his side's semi-final loss to the Western Bulldogs is driving him through summer training.

Last year the Lions played in September for the first time since 2004, but their campaign was ended with a 51-point thrashing from the Dogs.

Earlier that month, Rich had comfortably won the NAB AFL Rising Star award after featuring in all of the Lions' home and away games and averaging better than 17 disposals.

With his ball-winning ability and bullet-like forays into the forward 50, Rich made a resounding impression, however he said his negative rather than positive experiences were now serving as motivation.

"To play in the finals and having that feeling of losing, that's what spurs you on," he told afl.com.au.

"Individual stuff doesn't matter. That's what I learnt from my first year - just that hurt of losing."

The 19-year-old said he had focused on improving his fitness in recent months and was also conscious of the need to work on his strength.

Training has been another step up from his first pre-season, when he arrived in Brisbane as a first-round draft pick and with two WAFL premierships to his name.

"In your first year you're monitored and held back a bit by the conditioning staff, just with your loads, but now in your second year they let you do most things," Rich said.

"The pre-season has been about getting fitter, but you've got to keep that fine balance. You can do all the fitness but you'll lose some strength [if you're not careful]. With the way I play that's obviously an important part of my game, so I'm still definitely trying to get stronger as well.

"The training load has gone up and I can feel fitter, but nothing beats playing games."

Despite having experienced teammates Simon Black and Luke Power demanding tags, Rich's standing in the game rose so rapidly in 2009 that on many occasions he was the one followed by an opposition stopper.

He said the thought of similar treatment this season did not concern him.

"If it happens, you take it as a compliment and it will be a good learning curve for me," Rich said.

"There are plenty of good players in our team if I get targeted. You've just got to work a bit harder and communicate with the other boys, sort out your blocks and things like that. It comes down to work rate and it's down to pre-season and getting fitter and stronger.

"You get tired here and there but I was running on excitement most of the time last season. I wasn't sure if I was still going to get a game from week to week.

"It's just important to remain humble and work really hard and earn the respect of the players and coaches. It's very important to me that I earn the respect of my teammates."

His two favourite pastimes also got a kick-along in his first year in Queensland, with the quietly-spoken Rich a regular at Gold Coast beach breaks and the Nudgee and Indooroopilly golf courses.

Daniel Rich averaged 77.18 points as a midfielder in last year’s Toyota AFL Dream Team.

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