Melbourne skipper Max Gawn says his team isn't driven by the potential of going back-to-back in 2022.
The Demons broke a 57-year premiership drought in emphatic fashion last season, beating the Bulldogs by 74-points.
Speaking to Zero Hanger, Gawn said the reigning champs didn't need the lure of winning a second flag on the bounce as motivation. Instead of relying on the natural desire that comes as a professional.
"The drive is natural in a professional athlete, certainly for myself," Gawn said.
"I'm competitive, I love beating the person next to me, I love winning games.
The league's premier ruck said that the internal battle between himself and young star Luke Jackson was enough to keep him hungry to always improve.
"I've got a young ruckman who would like to take my spot at some point but that's keeping me hungry," Gawn said.
"I'm extremely excited about what we can create. I'm not even sure if Luke is a ruckman. I don't even think he knows, he can play anywhere on the ground at this stage.
"He's teaching me things that I didn't think I'd learn in my 30's. I'm learning how to get involved around the ground more, how to get clearances, and then I'm teaching him ruck work and marking and things like that.
"I'm improving because I'm competitive."
The Demons enter the new season as rightful flag favourites with many experts tipping the red and the blue to go back-to-back for the first time since 1955-57.
However, Gawn went on to say that the possibility of going back-to-back hadn't been spoken about internally.
"From a team point of view, I don't think we've mentioned back-to-back," Gawn stated.
"It's 2022 now, we've forgotten about 2021 now. That's in the past and if we keep thinking about that we will probably end up back there with it. We just want to do our best this year, get to the pointy end and do our best."
Melbourne will begin their premiership defence against the Bulldogs at the MCG on Wednesday, March 16.
