Much-improved Richmond ruckman Shaun Hampson provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an assessment of his 2016 season . . .

Exceeding expectations
“I didn’t expect to have the season that I had.  I had a double ankle reconstruction and barely any pre-season.  So, to play 20 games of senior footy, (I’m) pretty happy.”

Growing self-belief

“Everybody’s a confidence player to some extent.  When you’ve played a couple of good games of footy, you start feeling that little bit better about yourself . . . I think that definitely was the case.  I had a couple of good games early and had a pretty good year.”

Late fade-out

“Not too happy with my last month of footy, personally.  I just started feeling the body a bit . . . the lack of a pre-season and that base caught up with me in the end.  But pretty happy with the first three quarters of the season.”

Ready to rip into pre-season

“This off-season, I’ll be able to do the program fully, having no operations or anything like that.  So I’m looking forward to building a good base before pre-season, then having a full, long pre-season, and focusing on specific things like that, which I wasn’t able to do last year.”

Striving for further improvement

“I really think I took my ruckwork to another level.  I made a focus of really looking after the midfielders, as much as I could . . . sort of ticked that off.  I think my marking – contested marking, especially – improved a bit this year.  There are still lots of parts of my game I want to focus on, like the following up and putting on lots of pressure and stuff.  So I’ll work on that next pre-season.”

Late bloomer

“I guess my whole career they’ve been saying ruckmen mature a bit later than most players . . . Unfortunately 28 is a bit later than I would have wanted. But it’s better late than never.  Having a decent year just made me feel good about the coming years I’ve got at the Club.  So I’m really looking forward to next year.”