Like so many of his teammates, Western Bulldogs defender Fletcher Roberts will be tasked with building on the form of a breakout 2015 as he heads into his fifth AFL season.

Roberts played 12 games last season – his most consistent to date – and says he needs to continue to build on the confidence gained in 2015.

“I think the main thing I need to focus on is building confidence as I continue to train more and obviously take that into practice games.

“Last year I wasn’t able to play a few of the practice games (and) I feel like this year I’m a little bit ahead of where I was last year.

“That’s obviously a positive and I just need to take in the positivity and improvements from what I had last year to this year.”

With those improvements came bigger tasks for Roberts, including match ups on some of the game’s best power forwards.

The 22-year-old ranked third in the league for effective disposals per game, going at 87 per cent disposal efficiency.

Roberts says that despite the improvements, he knows there is still progress to be made.

“A few games my strength was a big factor that let me down a few times and a few crucial contests and as a key defender it’s pretty important to be able to match it with the biggest blokes.

“(I’m) working hard in the gym doing extra reps, extra sets to make sure that I’m putting on size and building strength to make sure that I can compete with the best forwards of the game.”

While Roberts developed a reliable partnership with Joel Hamling in the latter stages of last season, the defensive group was strengthened in the off-season with the additions of Kieran Collins and Marcus Adams.

Roberts says the first-year pair has impressed early and will aid the Dogs’ defensive line in creating depth.

“Kieran’s obviously going to be a very good player for the Club for a long time and Marcus is an absolute professional in everything he does.

“We’ll be able to learn from each other and compete against each other to make us all better as a defensive group and also as individuals.

“I think the best teams are always the ones that are the best on the training track… that’s always an aspiration of our footy club, to be the best trainers we can be and competitive animals.”