Zac Dawson faces a busy summer with his first child due in early December, at the beginning of pre-season training.

After an injury riddled 2015 season, the defender has his sights set on a solid pre-season and 2016 campaign.

“My off-season will be pretty low key because my wife Sheena and I are expecting a baby girl,” Dawson said.

“It will be all action at home and at the club, come pre-season time.”

Dawson played just five AFL games in 2015, due to a lingering groin injury from pre-season and a broken thumb he sustained in his first match of the year for Peel Thunder in June.

“It’s never great to have injuries but I’m looking forward to a solid pre-season,” he said.

It will be a new-look Fremantle defensive group in 2016, with one notable absence, retired All Australian Luke McPharlin.

“Luke was a key part to our back-six but even though it’s a big hole to fill, someone will step up and fill it,” he said.

Dawson said consistent football together was crucial for the defenders to gel as a group.

Key defenders Dawson, McPharlin, Michael Johnson and Alex Silvagni, played just a handful of games together in 2015.

“I think we need to improve our continuity and get everyone in the team at the same time,” he said.

“It helps to build chemistry by getting all of us in the same team for a long period.”