Jamie Macmillan credits his time in the coaches box with his improved tactical awareness on field.

With injury cruelling his 2014 season, Macmillan didn’t want to let his time off field go to waste, despite facing a tough battle to return.

“The world started caving in on me when I broke my leg in 2014,” Macmillan told foxfooty.com.au.

“It just led from one injury to another unfortunately.”

The 24-year-old said while it might have been easy to sit back and feel sorry for himself, he was determined to be proactive.

“I found myself thinking a little more tactically about the game,” he said.

“That’s helped me get involved more and help the other guys around me.

“I want to be able to identify things as a player and to sit in the coaches box and see what they’re picking up, I was able to get back out on the field and say ‘I’ve seen what happens here’.”

And after a strong 2015, where only a hamstring injury kept him out of the side, Macmillan is looking to improve even further on his offensive abilities.

“I worked pretty closely with Brady Rawlings when I first came to the footy club. He instilled in me that defence is going to get you games, so I’ve always had that defensive mindset. But it got to the point where I said ‘okay, I can do that side of the game reasonably well, now it’s about what else can I add to the side’.

“I worked really closely last year with (assistant coach) Josh Drummond on being able to defend while having an impact going the other way. While it doesn’t really come naturally to me because I’m used to that defensive role, now I’m finding out how it fits into my game. I’ve found it as I’ve matured.”

There’s no doubting Macmillan’s maturity, with the number 34 set for his second year in an official leadership capacity.

“It was pretty eye-opening,” Macmillan said of being part of the leadership group.

“Last year was a lot about keeping things pretty simple. I was able to learn off the guys in the leadership group, led by Andrew Swallow, but then you had Drew Petrie and Nick Dal Santo as well. I was able to feed off them, so last year was an educational year for me in that sense.

“The relationship with the young guys and being able to teach them both the game and the way to go about your footy, those sorts of things are what I’m pretty keen on doing.”