With Geelong’s Opening Round match just one week away, Lawson Humphries is ready for his best season yet.
The defender has reflected on his 2025 season and, with State of Origin experience under his belt, is eager to lift his game this year.
“I probably was a little bit disappointed at times last year with how my season went, just felt like I lacked a bit of consistency that I probably had in my first year, but I guess I played half of the games my first year.
“I feel like I’ve had a really good pre-season and taking a lot more seriously my disciplines off the field, which is arguably just as important as the on-field stuff.
“I want to be a really strong contributor to the group. Obviously we have such a strong backline and I kind of want to be the leader of that, and we have so many strong guys back there so for me to do that I’m going to have to really up my game and be a really good team player, so I’m looking forward to that challenge.”
The 22-year-old discussed the lessons he picked up while representing Western Australia in the State of Origin match, saying he loved the experience.
“Probably the main things I took away were just the little learnings you get from playing with some of the best players, and even playing against the best players,” he said.
“It’s definitely given me a lot of confidence.
“I think the way I was able to play the second half in that game, it gave me a lot of confidence that I can match it with the game’s best. Just trying to take that confidence into the season, because obviously it is going to be a long year but there’s nothing better than starting your year really well.”
Looking at the 2026 fixture, Humphries said the team focuses on each week as it comes, but he likes to get a good sense of the season ahead.
“As a group, we have got a really tough first month and we’re going to have a tough year, we’ve got a pretty solid fixture which is good. We’ve got to be ready from game one, obviously Gold Coast up there, it’s going to be really tough. I think as soon as the ball’s bounced it’s going to be on,” he said.
“I’m just pretty organised, I like to look ahead at what our fixture looks like but as a group, we’re all taking it week by week.
“I think by the time our team’s selected, we’ll all be ready and excited.”
