Western Force captain Jeremy Williams is adamant 2026 is the year for the club to break through for a maiden finals appearance.
The Force will kick-start their pre-season next Friday against the Queensland Reds, with their Super Rugby Pacific opener exactly a month away on February 14.
Watch every second of Super Rugby Pacific live and on demand via Stan Sport.
Williams is one of several returning Test players who re-joined training over the past week, along with one-time Wallabies captain Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch and Carlo Tizzano.
The added Test experience is only adding confidence in the west, they can break through into the top six, missing out on finals last year after a second-half slump.
The Force were fourth after round eight, before five straight defeats ended their hopes.
"I think the experience coming into this year is awesome. Everyone's got another year under their belt, and it's about holding on to those 80-minute performances coming to the back end of the year," Williams told reporters.
"Looking at our schedule, we've got some tours away so we don't have to do a lot of the travelling this year, which is awesome to see.
"We just have to be more disciplined around the park and make sure we don't give teams easy entries into our 22s, so we're not defending the whole time."
Williams backed coach Simon Cron to get the best out of their new recruits, including title-winning former Crusader George Bridge, Wallaby Darby Lancaster, and Argentinian duo Franco Molina and Agustin Moyano.
"He's got a few new tricks, not many that I'm going to share now, but he's really good," Williams believes.
"The boys love him and he has a lot of energy around the place and it's been a really good vibe since I've come back in.
"Seeing how much work the boys have put in and how much everyone's buying in, I just can't wait to hopefully add.
"...You want competition on all positions around the field and that competition pushes people at training to get better every day. We want to be pushing our team and making the selection process quite hard for the coaches."
