JACK Trengove completed his third AFL season in 2012.

That’s right, you read correctly - his third AFL listed season.

It’s sometimes easy to forget that he played the entire season as a 20 year-old (he turned 21 on September 2).

Trengove didn’t hone his craft in the VFL after being selected at No. 2 in the 2009 NAB AFL Draft - he instead went straight into the senior side when he made his debut in round one, 2010.

Oh, and he also happened to become the game’s youngest ever skipper when he was appointed at the start of the year, joining Jack Grimes as co-captain.

It’s quite remarkable to ponder his promising, yet brief career at season’s end.

When reflecting on his 2012 season and emerging, yet short in a time sense career, Trengove said each year had been “so different” already.

“I’ve learned a whole lot more in this season than I have in the previous two, and that probably comes with the captaincy, but also just with my own individual game,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“It’s hard to compare seasons, but looking back, I would like to have played a few better games than I did this year. But, all in all, I think it’s been a positive season for myself from a learning point of view ... it definitely will hold me in good stead for future seasons.

“I’ve still got a whole lot more to learn, but I’m tracking in the right direction.”

Trengove has played 59 of 66 possible AFL matches - an outstanding achievement by any player first entering the ranks. But he was adamant that his sole objective in his developing years was to gain the respect of his teammates and coaches. 

“And then just do everything that I get told to do - that’s the easiest way to gain respect - to have the head down, bum up attitude, and that’s what I’ve gone for, and it’s probably got me to where I am right now,” he said.

“The key and the thing that underlies it all is your pre-season. I haven’t missed much of the three pre-seasons that I’ve been in far, so that really has set me up from an aerobic point of view, to be able to get through a full AFL season.

“This year is the first one out of the three that I’ve played all 22 games, which is, I suppose, a good achievement in itself. But, touch wood - I’ve been lucky from an injury side of things, and hopefully I can continue that and get another good pre-season under my belt, and put myself in better physical shape for next season.”

Trengove said he would take plenty of knowledge gained this year into 2013. He added that he understood what was needed to improve both personally and from a club perspective, with the challenge being to now put it into action.

“Since Neeldy’s (Mark Neeld) been in at the club, and all the big change that we had this time last year, we probably didn’t realise what it really took to be an AFL footballer, in terms of the professionalism, and how hard training had to be if you wanted to get to the next level,” he said.

“Obviously we’re not at that level yet, but we feel from reinforcement from guys who have been in those situations - like the coaches of the club now - that we are starting to set those standards.

“This off season is a really key component of our pre-season ... and while it is a mental refresher, you have to put yourself in a physical shape to be ready on day one of the pre-season.

“Leading into pre-season, we know what it really takes, and what intensity we have to be training at, which we probably didn’t understand until about Christmas last year. So, I think that will put us in better stead, and we’ll be in a totally different position on day one of pre-season this year to what we were last year.”

Although acknowledging the disappointing 2012 season from a win/loss point of view, Trengove said much had been gained internally. 

“While the wins haven’t been there as much as we would have liked, I feel that we are heading in the right direction, and the things we’ve learned will hold us in good stead for the years to come,” he said.

“Looking back, you’ve got to be disappointed, but I’m still very excited at the future of this footy club.

Trengove believes the team’s competitiveness and consistency across four quarters will be the improvements seen next year.

“We showed in many games throughout the year that we have the abilities to match it with any team we come up against - it’s just about that consistency over the whole game, the whole four quarters,” he said.

“We’ve fallen into the trouble of having little five, 10 minute lapses that really hurt us on the scoreboard, and I’m just really looking forward - and I can see it all starting to develop.

“I’ve got full confidence that we will be able to do that after another big pre-season, and that’s what I’m really excited for. I know it’s hard, because we’ve only just finished, but I’m so excited to get started again, because I know where we’re heading as a group and I just want to get there.”