While holidaying in Costa Rica, life back in Fremantle wasn’t far from Nat Fyfe’s mind.

The Fremantle captain has ventured to Sri Lanka and Central America this off-season, getting in as much rest and relaxation in before hitting the ground running for the 2019 pre-season.

When Fyfe returns in mid-November, he will be joined by four new teammates from the 2018 NAB AFL Trade Period in Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb, Travis Colyer and free agent Reece Conca.

“Nearly time to wrap the travels and get back to work,” Fyfe posted on Instagram on Thursday.

“Pretty excited to have some new teammates to play with.”

In a post-season interview with DockerTV, Fyfe said the club had a definite goal for 2019 after debuting 22 new players in two years.

“We’re yet to fully find our identity with this new group of players,” Fyfe said.

“There’s a few old heads from a previous era, mixed in with this completely new look side, driven by youth so it’s going to take us a little bit of time to fully gel and find that identity.

“I think it’s important that we continue on the path of education, everyone learning our game plan, learning the culture of our club and continue to get acclimatised to the way that the modern game is played and prepare for a big 2019.”

Fyfe said the highlight of 2018 was seeing the blooding of Fremantle’s youth.

“I think we’ve been able to get a number of games into debutants and second-year players which is part of our strategy,” Fyfe said. 

“We’ve seen development in guys like Brennan Cox, Luke Ryan, Taylin Duman, Stephen Giro, Bailey Banfield and our other first-year players, so some really good development in our younger players.”

The skipper said he saw promising signs from the 2017 draft class and believes many have leadership potential.

“We can be pretty impressed with the way our 2017 debutants have come in and made an impact both at the AFL and WAFL level,” Fyfe said. 

“(They’re) a great bunch of guys who hopefully, will be able to get some leadership group material out of in the coming years.”

The 27-year-old thanked fans for their support throughout the year.

“Thank you firstly for all the support, I think earlier in the year the way the fans turned up to our Optus Stadium games and really got behind us from the start was great to be a part of,” Fyfe said.

“I look forward to bigger and better things next year and into the future.”