A World Cup omission will fuel Tom Banks' desire to be a better player in 2020, revealing his plans to develop into an ACT Brumbies leader to help the club handle a changing of the guard.
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The Brumbies started pre-season training on Monday with a revamped squad and several new faces stepping into the shoes of departed stars.
Banks is preparing for his fourth season in Canberra and has been added to a leadership group to guide the next-gen Brumbies through a five-week training block before Christmas.
The flying fullback has found a home in the capital, making his Wallabies debut last year but missing out on a spot in the World Cup squad this year.
He says those experiences have made him stronger and now he hopes to show he can be a leader as well as a back-line X-factor.
Banks, Tevita Kuridrani and Joe Powell will be the longest-serving Brumbies backs next year and rookies will look to them to stand tall without Christian Lealiifano and Henry Speight to lean on.
"Towards the end of last year [Lealiifano] helped us out and showed us what a good leader does and doesn't do," Banks said.
"He leads by example and when he speaks, his words are taken in by the group. That's something I'd like to do - get the respect of the group. It's not done easily, but that's what I'm looking to."
Banks is in a leadership group with Tom Cusack, Andy Muirhead, Irae Simone, Pete Samu and Joe Powell, but coach Dan McKellar will wait until closer to the start of the season before settling on a captain for next year.
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Banks, 25, has played 46 games since making his debut for the Queensland Reds in 2015 and has made the Brumbies' No. 15 jersey his own in the past two years.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika left him out of the World Cup squad, preferring Kurtley Beale and Dane Haylett-Petty as his fullback options.
Cheika quit after the Wallabies were knocked out in the quarter-finals, and a new coach could lead to a change in selection fortune for Banks next year.
Banks played three Tests this year, including two starts, but had minimal chances to impress despite the departure of Israel Folau.
"It was really disappointing not to make that World Cup squad, but the focus no comes back to having a good pre-season," Banks said.
"I tried to get over it as fast as I could, there's no point dwelling on it. Not getting selected allows me to do this pre-Christmas block and I really want to get in the best shape I can.
"You can't fill the void [departed players] are going to leave, but that's where we've got people to stand up and look to fill their shoes.
"It's not just one or two people, it will have to come from a lot of people because it's tough to understand what they did for this team.
"I'm looking [to be a leader], it's something I really wanted to work on this year ... I'm getting a bit older now so looking to help the younger boys and help where I can."
Banks has scored 15 tries in the past two years, but played most of those games with Lealiifano at flyhalf and Henry Speight on the wing.
Toni Pulu and Andy Murihead loom as the front-runner to be the wing combinations, while NRL recruit Solomone Kata could be an X-factor addition to the back three.