Troubled by shoulder problems late in 2011, Hannebery required knee surgery during the following pre-season. 

But it did not seem to bother the 2010 NAB AFL Rising Star winner, who quickly found form early in the season and did not miss a game for the year. 

Highlights included a career-best 42 touches in the round 16 victory over West Coast in Perth and a 31-disposal, two-goal return against Carlton in round 19. 

But he saved his best for the Grand Final, when he set the tone early with a courageous mark and finished second in the Norm Smith Medal voting.

Draft history: 2008 NAB AFL Draft 2nd round selection (Sydney) No. 30 overall.

2013 Coaches Call

2012 was a pretty successful stint for Dan. He had a pretty good year and improved in a lot of areas and also had a really good finals series. He got the boys going with his hardness at the ball and his running in the finals series he took to another level.

Pre-season has been terrific. He’s been up the front of the group and one of his strengths is the running and being able to push himself and he’s done that again. There are still some little things that we’ll keep on working on because he’s really keen to get better at a lot of things and he’s putting in the hard yards.

We hope in 2013 that he can continue to play good football. Even though he is such a young fella, he’s played some very good football and what he needs to do this year is begin to be a consistent player. He knows what our game plan is and he knows what is expected of him, so this year he needs to start teaching the young guys and bring them along with him.