Veteran defender Harry Taylor believes the key to staying in contention for a premiership in 2020 will be to live by a ‘growth mindset’.

After bowing out in the preliminary final to eventual premier Richmond, Taylor knows that every player must improve and learn from the experience of falling a game short of the Grand Final.

“You just have to remember the growth mindset that is required in this game to be a successful player,” Taylor said.

“You don’t get to a prelim without doing a lot of things right for a long time throughout a tough season.”

“We need to remember the good things that we have done. We also need to realise how important it is to improve. There have certainly been cases in the past where teams have got into preliminary finals and have unfortunately been unable to back it up the next season, so what we really need to do is have that really strong growth mindset.”

“(We need to) All improve regardless if you're Gary Ablett at 35/36 or me at 33 and our new draftees at 18 – you just need to have that really strong desire to keep improving.”

After experiencing premiership success, himself back in 2009 and 2011, Taylor’s desire to help his current teammates win a flag helped him sway him to play on for a 13th season.

“A lot goes into these types of decisions,” said the 261-game veteran.

“In the end I still have a strong passion and desire to help this club win another premiership, that has been my goal now for a very long time and I just want to see the players that I play with currently become premiership players, that would make me very satisfied.”