Finishing sixth in the club's best and fairest and playing 23 of 24 games would be a solid AFL season for most players.
But after making the previous two All Australian teams, last year gave star Brisbane defender Harris Andrews extra pause for thought.
A niggling knee injury late in the season affected his form as the Lions bowed out of the finals in straight sets.
"I had a couple of little injuries here and there," he said.
"I did a lot of reflecting at the end of last season and understood I need to be better as a footballer and a teammate to make sure when I go out there, I'm playing as well as I can.
"I took a lot of learnings from last season."
He came in for some media criticism and opponents occasionally were able to take advantage of his determination to attack as well as defend.
"You definitely hear things in the media - I'm not someone who's going to completely switch off (from) footy," he said.
"It's just really important to get back to knowing what works for you ... just being able to play my role for the team.
"Obviously the back end of last season wasn't the way I wanted to finish it, but at the same time I understand that. I've been able to put a few things in place throughout the off-season."
The Lions will take a near full-strength side into Friday night's Marvel Stadium match against the Western Bulldogs, the same team that ended their season last year by one point in the semi-finals.
The Bulldogs beat them twice last season and Andrews said Brisbane are eager to see how they measure up against the grand finalists.
"The Dogs are obviously a really quality football team, they've probably had the wood over us for the last season," he said.
"So we'd love to get out there and play to the best of our ability and put the things we've wanted to work on over summer into practice.
"There's obviously going to be no better occasion for that than playing against the Dogs at Etihad.
"There's no doubt we'll be going in treating this as a real game."
Queensland's shocking weather meant the Lions came to Melbourne a day early.
"It's been a little bit different ... obviously there's been a fair bit going on in Brisbane and guys are really concerned with the flood waters," he said.
"We're really lucky to still be able to get on with our job and we're thinking about everyone in Brisbane."
