ACHIEVING great success at a young age can sometimes be a double-edged sword, but premiership glory has not doused the competitive fire in Xavier Ellis.

The 20-year-old played in a winning grand final side in just his 36th AFL match, but you won't catch him resting on his laurels in 2009.

"I never had a goal to win one premiership – it was always about winning premierships," Ellis says. "I want more than one and there were a few unlucky fellas last year and they're hungry as ever. All the players are eager to go there again and not be a one-year wonder.

"We're just so hungry to improve and achieve and build on what we did last year."

Ellis wasn't just part of the side that upset Geelong in the premiership decider; he was a major factor in bringing a 10th flag to the club with an eye-catching 28-possession performance on the biggest day on the footy calendar.

He was also carrying a hip injury that would later require surgery, but Ellis is typically modest when asked for his recollections of the day.

"Going into the game it was probably the most relaxed I'd ever been," he recalls of the day that started with a short stroll to the MCG from his nearby home.

"Everyone thought Geelong was a certainty – and rightfully so having performed so well throughout the season – but we were hitting our peak at the end of the season and things bounced our way on grand final day.

"I was happy to make a contribution to the win. I was probably a bit lucky that Sam Mitchell was being tagged, Chance Bateman was doing a job for the team, Brad Sewell was doing a job for the team, so I was kind of running around by myself.

"Statistically I did okay, but you look at the jobs Sewelly and those guys did and they played amazingly. I was just lucky enough to get a bit of an armchair ride."

It was the realisation of a dream he thought was "a million miles away" at the start of a career that took a while to gather momentum.

Ellis was taken with the third pick overall in the 2005 NAB AFL Draft, but admits to watching on with more than a little jealousy as fellow draftees made their AFL debuts while year 12 studies and a foot injury kept him on the sidelines.

He managed 13 games in 2007, but only started to feel like he was earning his keep in the brown and gold during his third season.

"About midway through the year I moved into the midfield on a more permanent basis and I gained a lot of confidence playing against your Jimmy Bartels, your Joel Coreys, those sorts of players," he says.

"Kevin Sheedy used to say that you're apprenticeship is 50 games long. I've played 36 and there's probably been more bad games in there than good, but towards the end of last year I turned a bit of a corner and I'm a lot more confident about my role in the middle.

"When you've got the likes of Sam Mitchell, Brad Sewell, Luke Hodge and Chance Bateman around you it does give you a lot of confidence. They're always pushing me to do better and achieve more.

"I'm just trying to learn as much as I can as quick as I can. Hopefully there's a lot of improvement in me in 2009 and the side as well."