DEAN Terlich was one of the bright stories to emerge from a bleak 2013 for Melbourne.

The former Sydney Swans rookie reentered the AFL via pick No.68 in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft and quickly became a mainstay of the Melbourne line-up. By the season’s end, Terlich had run third in the club’s best and fairest, following an impressive season down back.

Now, as he enters his second senior season, Terlich knows the expectations have risen.

“I’m just excited about this season. In my first year, there were no expectations on me whatsoever, but there might be a few expectations in 2014,” he said.

“For me personally, I don’t put any expectations or limits on me. I take it week-by-week and if there’s one thing I learned in 2013, it was that football can change very quickly.

“Taking it week to week is my best go, so that’s what I’ll concentrate on doing. I’m really excited. There is a different feel around the club and Roosy’s (Paul Roos) brought in some high quality coaches and footballers from interstate and from other clubs, so the general feel around the club is excitement.”

But Terlich acknowledged that his backline coach Jade Rawlings had upped the ante on his game. 

“Jade Rawlings has been quite tough on me this pre-season and he just wants me to step it up another level. He’s expecting more things,” he said.

“Being a first year player coming into the system, the little mistakes that you make, you can get away with from being naive, but now you can’t really do that anymore because you’ve been in the system for 12 months.

“I’ve played 20 games and you can’t play the first year card anymore.”

Terlich said his first full AFL pre-season was tracking strongly. 

“Personally, I think it’s going quite well. I’ve done almost every session and that was my main goal in the pre-season. I haven’t really had a full pre-season under my belt since I started playing football,” he said.

“Things have stepped up a bit more this year, so it’s the fittest and strongest I’ve ever been. I’m feeling good, but I’m definitely looking forward to the games.

“I just wanted to play every game last season and that’s what I want to do in 2014. My goal is more team orientated than anything – I just want to win more games and see if we can push for a top eight position and take it from there.”