Murphy looks for some better luck as Tigers captainTuesday, March 15, 2016 - 12:05 AM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT captain Jake Murphy is hoping for better luck in his third season as captain of the Tigers as he looks to lead a young Tigers' midfield to help them to another finals campaign.

When Murphy took over as Claremont captain in 2014 following the retirement of Andrew Browne, he was coming off the best season of his career where he was just about the best player in the WAFL following a 2013 season averaging 24.7 disposals and kicking 17 goals.

As a dual premiership player, the then 24-year-old was a natural selection as the next captain at Claremont but things haven’t gone to plan the last two seasons with a horror injury run.

He has managed just 17 of his 108 matches with Claremont as captain the past two years but he is back to feeling 100 per cent coming into 2016 and looking to help a youthful Tigers outfit to an improved season on 2015 where they finished fifth, and lost the elimination final to East Perth.

"The boys are in really good shape. We have a healthy list and young and old have been all training well. We are now ready for the season no doubt," Murphy said on Channel 7's Claremont season preview.

"It's been a tough couple of years personally not being on the park as much as I'd like, but I have definitely had a lot to take away from off field and how I can drive the guys when I'm not playing as captain. There's a lot of lessons to be learned there."

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Murphy is one of only a handful of Claremont players remaining from the premiership years of 2011 and 2012 along with Ian Richardson, Aaron Holt and Mitch Andrews, and the Tigers have lost added experience with the retirements of Kepler Bradley and Mark Seaby on top of that.

But the skipper remains confident Claremont have a good group of young players ready to step up and make their mark led by versatile big man Darcy Cameron, emerging midfielder Ryan Lim and excitement machine Francis Watson.

"Losing Mark Seaby and Kepler Bradley, two tall guys who don’t grow on trees, means it's exciting for other guys to grasp their opportunities and grasp their spots in the team," Murphy said.

"I think guys like Darcy Cameron can step up, and then I'm confident young guys like Ryan Lim and Francis Watson can really come up and dominate this year."

Michael Broadbridge is coming into his third season as Claremont coach and two things have been consistent through 2014 and 2015 for him – he hasn’t had a fully available or fit Murphy at his disposal and the Tigers have made horror starts in both campaigns.

Broadbridge is confident of getting off to a better start this time around beginning with the season-opener against East Perth at Medibank Stadium on Saturday.

He also is happy with the list the Tigers have put together with experienced players Dylan Ross and Ian Rowe returning, Jared Hardisty back from a season at Hawthorn, Jye Bolton arriving from the VFL and Rowen Powell joining after time with West Coast.

"It's been two seasons in-a-row where I've had the boys at Claremont that we've started really poorly. We lost our first five games last year and finished really well, and managed to play in that elimination final courtesy of the top five, which was handy for us," Broadbridge said.

"Certainly we need to win more than 10 games which we have won in each of the last two seasons. We are looking to push up to 13 or 14 this year to give ourselves a decent chance.

"We went into the off-season with a goal of adding depth and quality to our midfield. We thought that was an area that we were clearly deficient last year and we think we've done that with the addition of Jye Bolton from the VFL and Jared Hardisty back off Hawthorn's list.

"Rowen Powell comes to us from the Eagles as well but overall we feel that we have added depth to our midfield which should hold us in good stead."