WESTERN Bulldog Shaun Higgins believes he will enter 2010 under no additional pressure despite having somewhat of a breakout season this year.

The 21-year-old's season got off to a promising start when he was chosen by seven-time club champion Scott West to wear his famous No.7 guernsey.

He also became the leadership group's youngest member following West's retirement.

His 32 goals and average of nearly 22 disposals a game ranked his season better than his 2007 year, where he also played 20 games.

However, the former Geelong Falcon says he won't be burdened by expectation caused by this when he takes on his fifth year.

"Last pre-season was the first time that I've had a full pre-season, and I pretty much got through the year injury-free as opposed to the last couple of years," he said on Tuesday, the day after the Dogs commenced pre-season training.

"If you can stay on the park and have a good pre-season, then everything is in good stead to have a consistent year."

Higgins said joining captain Brad Johnson and the club's leadership group in the wake of West's retirement had helped his development on and off the field.

He also said the experience had influenced him to further enhance his leadership skills next season and beyond.

"The on field stuff was a lot better due to the fact I was in the leadership group, and also just learning off the guys like Gia [Daniel Giansiracusa], Murph [Robert Murphy], Johnno, Boydy [Matthew Boyd], Crossy [Daniel Cross] and Dale [Morris] with all different styles [of leadership]," he said.

"It was definitely beneficial for me.

"Being in there when you're young, you learn off those guys and hopefully over the next couple of seasons, I can continue to build that."

Higgins got through 2009 relatively unscathed, succumbing only to a brush with groin soreness that was originally thought to be the early onset of the dreaded osteitis pubis.

He said the lingering injury, which was something that initially saw him managed differently to his teammates, had subsided over the post-season break.

"We planned to manage it a bit more but I've come up a lot better and probably advanced more than we thought [I would] at the end of last season," he said.

"I'm in full training at the moment and hopefully I'll stay that way.

"I was able to have no post-season surgery this year, which is definitely beneficial heading into a pre-season so I'm looking forward to a good one."

Higgins said his teammates were still motivated by their preliminary final loss to St Kilda and were looking to atone with a dedicated summer training regime.

"You have to move on but I think deep inside everyone is still that burning desire from the fact the last two seasons have ended a week shorter than we would have liked," he said.

"This year hurt a lot more than the year before, just given the amount of work we put in over three or four years.

"Just to fall short I think [will see] the boys have a big pre-season and we're looking forward to next year."