Charlie Cameron hit the pavement in the offseason and it’s helped him wind back the clock to recapture form not seen from the Brisbane small forward this decade.<\/p>\n
The all-star Lion kicked a season-best four goals in last year’s AFL grand final defeat of Geelong.<\/p>\n
That haul ensured he bottled some confidence after what was statistically his quietest season, outside of the shortened 2020 campaign, since his debut in 2014.<\/p>\n
Critics had taken aim at the 31-year-old, who had just two disposals in a qualifying-final loss to the Cats and went goalless in 10 of 25 games.<\/p>\n
Charlie Cameron in action during the AFL Community Series.\u00a0Photo by Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
He averaged 9.6 disposals per game, only slightly more than in 2020 (9.37) when the AFL introduced 20-minute quarters, and only greater than his maiden season at the Crows (8.86).<\/p>\n
“I didn’t live up to the standard I wanted, but you have to take all the positives out of the year and learn from the mistakes, or I guess you’d probably say failures,” Cameron, who is contracted until the end of the 2028 season, said.<\/p>\n
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“I built a bit of resilience trying to get into this year … (and a) bit of confidence from the grand final, that I can still match it with the best.”<\/p>\n
Cameron had 15 disposals and three goals in Western Australia’s State of Origin loss to Victoria and then amassed 18 disposals to go with two goals and four goal assists in last week’s pre-season victory over Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
Not since 2019, when he had 21 touches against the Suns, has Cameron seen more of the footy.<\/p>\n
Confident he can “get up the ground” more this season, Cameron said regular offseason running sessions with teammates Dayne Zorko, Harris Andrews and Ryan Lester were the catalyst.<\/p>\n
“Lots of running,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And coming back with a clear mindset to try to prove myself. I’ve showed that over the pre-season against Victoria and Gold Coast. “<\/p>\n
The Lions’ quest for three consecutive flags will begin in Brisbane against Western Bulldogs on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The additions of key forward Oscar Allen and ruck Sam Draper, currently sidelined with a foot injury, have bolstered a squad that featured eight players aged 22 or under in last season’s grand final.<\/p>\n
Jarrod Berry missed the final with injury, while fit-again Lincoln McCarthy and Keidean Coleman are also back in the picture after two years of setbacks.<\/p>\n
“Nervous if you’re in the AFL team trying to keep your spot,” Cameron said of their imposing depth.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s a good thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Cameron hit the pavement in the offseason and it’s helped him wind back the clock to recapture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-519577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}