Wingman David Mackay is confident a strong pre-season campaign will help him return to his damaging best in 2014. 

Mackay’s fluctuating form reflected that of the team’s last season. After an up-and-down start, the 25-year-old went back to SANFL club, South Adelaide. A week in the SANFL mid-season helped the dashing onballer to regain his rhythm – he averaged 21 disposals across his next four AFL games.

One of Adelaide’s most impressive performers on the track so far this pre-season, Mackay believes the challenges of 2013 will help him take the next step this season.

“I wasn’t very happy with my year. Certainly, I didn’t have the consistency that I wanted to and that’s been one thing that over pre-season I’ve been trying to improve,” Mackay told AFL.com.au.

“(I’m focusing) session by session on just improving that consistency, so that when the games come around I can put in a better performance every week.” 

Mackay, who played his 100^th game in Round 18 last season, said the disappointment of last season was helping to drive the Crows this summer.

“We’ve had a really tough pre-season. They’re always difficult, but we’ve had a huge emphasis on getting the kilometres into our legs,” he said.

“A number of our guys, who probably didn’t have years that they wanted to (last year) are in a similar boat as me. They’ve also been working their backsides off to make sure that they can turn it around this year.

“As a group, we really believe we are in good shape. We couldn’t have done too much more leading into the upcoming season.”

With another grueling pre-season nearing the end, Mackay said the players were looking forward to the return of games. Adelaide’s first assignment is a NAB Challenge clash with Port Adelaide on Sunday, February 16. Tickets for the pre-season hit-out are now on sale. 

“It’s always good to get to January and then you sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel with games coming up and that’s a really exciting part about what we do.”

“It’s a really exciting part of the year.”