Brisbane Lions captain Dayne Beams is confident hard work will pay off for gifted tall forward Eric Hipwood, as the club looks to springboard up the ladder in 2018.

The 20-year-old kicked 30 goals from his 20 games last year, and Beams confirmed to SEN’s KB and The Doc adding muscle to the fiercely competitive Hipwood’s 92 kilo frame has been a major focus during pre-season.

“Eric’s a really aggressive young kid, he hates being beaten. He’s like that at training as well, he gets quite fired up and animated at times,” he said.

“That correlates to his games, he’s a real competitor.

“I think for Eric this pre-season’s been about putting on a bit of size. He gets to a lot of contests, but sometimes his strength doesn’t allow him to clunk the ball, so he’s been working on that pretty hard.

“Hopefully he gets the rewards for his effort in the pre-season during the season.”

Another young gun who is set to improve on last season is Alex Witherden who last week signed a contract extension keeping him at the Lions until the end of 2020.

The Geelong Falcons product was a revelation during his nine games in 2017, and Beams said he was incredibly impressed with how Witherden dealt with early adversity, before making his mark.

“He came to the club with a broken leg, so he had a few issues early on,” he said.

“Alex was a little bit homesick as well, and he didn’t do it easy at the start when he first came up to Queensland. “Since he’s played footy he’s settled in well.”

The 27-year-old will lead Brisbane for a second straight year, and the club will begin its 2018 campaign against St Kilda on Saturday March 24 at Etihad Stadium.

To listen to Dayne Beams on SEN's KB and The Doc listen in the player below: