Hawthorn's Jarryd Roughead says he's been learning on the fly in his first year as skipper after having to re-evaluate his team's AFL ambitions.
Ahead of his 250th AFL game, against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday, Roughead said he started the season with a top-four goal.
But a shocking 0-4 start thanks to form, injury and key personnel changes meant that quickly went out the window and left him questioning his capability as a captain.
""I heard (Sydney captain) Josh Kennedy say last week that you look at yourself and ask the question if it's your fault," Roughead said on Tuesday.
"You do go through those moments but you understand it's a totally different side to what I've known in the past and what everyone else has so you just have to get through as best you can because you learn on the fly."
Winning four of their last six including taking the scalp of in-form Sydney last round and a draw with premiership favourites Greater Western Sydney, the Hawks are an outside chance of making their eighth consecutive finals series.
The star forward wasn't banking on that happening for his 12th placed team but said there was a lot to feel positive about.
"Once we got to the midpoint of the year I don't think finals was a high expectation of the group because we weren't in a position where we thought we could and I still think that now because there's got to be a fair bit go right for us to make the finals.
"But as long as we're still playing this kind of footy for the next four weeks it's exciting going forward.
"It shows we're going in the right direction."
Roughead's recent form has been reflected in the Hawks' mid-season surge and he feels he's finally getting back to his best after such a long stint out with injury and then a second cancer diagnosis, which meant he missed all of 2016.
"Trying to come back after 18 months of missing footy, you're not going to play great footy straight away but the last couple of weeks I've contributed pretty well to the side ," Roughead said.
"My goal wasn't to come back and play 250 games ... it was just to play footy again."
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