Lincoln McCarthy has set his sights on taking his game to a new level in the coming weeks.
The 22-year-old has played 12 AFL games so far this season, but he knows he can't rest on his laurels if he wants to be part of the Cats' finals campaign.
"I need to bridge the gap between my worst and best performances," McCarthy said at a press conference at Simonds Stadium on Wednesday.
"There's lots of things I need to improve on.
"I guess it's great to have a bit of continuity in actually playing week to week and getting through.
"But now it's about building on each performance for me and trying to impact on the game as much as I can to help us out."
Although he's desperate to further improve his game, McCarthy has already become one of the heart-warming tales of the 2016 season.
After all, this time last year he was still struggling to overcome a foot injury and was unsure if he would ever play again.
"It's good to be playing footy," McCarthy said with a chuckle. "I just need to keep going now and not think that I'm right or anything like that.
"I need to keep strengthening all part of the body. I want to get fitter. I'll keep working."
McCarthy is due to come out of contract at the end of the season, but he is likely to pen a new deal with the Cats in the near future.
"It's not far away, which is good," he said. "I think it'll be done in the next couple of weeks, so that'll be great."
As for Saturday night's huge clash with Adelaide at Simonds Stadium, McCarthy knows it is going to be a very tough game.
"Obviously they're playing great footy and we've got to improve again from the weekend," he said.
"We had a tough slog against Freo, who played pretty good, and we had to be at our best to end up beating them.
"We're going to have to step it up again when we play the Crows, who are in great form.
"They've got a strong midfield and their forwards are playing great footy.
"I guess we've got to have a strong defensive performance and improve our method and our work around the contest.
"If we can be cleaner with the footy and hit our targets it's going to be easier for us to defend their strong attack."
