AFL Track Watch: Collingwood, North Melbourne and Richmond hit the track for pre-season
The pre-season is heating up, with a host of players back in action. Get the latest intel from Collingwood, North Melbourne and Richmond.
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A young Richmond gun showed his best signs yet of overcoming a debilitating injury, while the Magpies took the chance to sweat out any possible premiership hangover on Friday.
Meanwhile, North Melbourne’s prized draftees joined in for their first full session at the club as our reporters and snappers took in pre-season action.
TARRYN’S TIME
North Melbourne mid-forward Tarryn Thomas has the potential to challenge a handful of teammates and become the club’s best player next season, according to star Kangaroos forward Nick Larkey.
Thomas missed the first half of last season due to behavioural concerns as well as a club-imposed suspension, but he showed his importance to the group – and his untapped talent – in the last 12 games of the season.
Larkey, the Kangaroos’ only All-Australian in 2023, is confident 23-year-old Thomas can elevate himself next year with greater continuity, a positive mindset and a closer connection to the group.
He believes Thomas can push into the elite bracket of skipper Jy Simpkin, midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke and young guys Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw as the club looks to start the climb back up the ladder.
“The sky’s the limit for Tarryn,” Larkey said as Kangaroos welcomed their latest batch of draftees including top four picks Colby McKercher and Zane Duursma for their first session at Arden St.
“I think he (Thomas) does have the potential to be our best player … he has all the attributes for us. It is a matter of him putting it all together and also a matter of him getting the consistency in his season.
“He was obviously interrupted last season, but he has come back in great condition and it is a matter of him stringing the whole season together.
“We have got a lot of players like that who had a bit of inconsistency (for various reasons) last year. I can’t wait to see what Lukey Davies (-Uniacke) can do when get an uninterrupted season. Jy (Simpkin) was interrupted last season (due to injury).
“There were a lot of quality players in our team who missed due to injury, or inconsistency, or for different reasons.”
Thomas was in the main rehab group doing a lot of running on Friday as he works hard to overcome minor groin soreness, with the club not wishing to push him too hard too early.
Cam Zurhaar had ankle surgery in July and is just easing his way back through the rehab group at training as is defender Luke McDonald, who had a hamstring operation in August.
Both are expected to be back training fully before Christmas.
The only two long-term injury concerns at the moment are Griffin Logue, who is expected back mid-season following his ACL injury, but who started running again recently, and Brayden George, who is recovering from elbow surgery after an off-season mishap.
Thomas has one more season left to run on his current deal with the Kangaroos, with the club hopeful a big season can play a role in finally getting the best out of him, which might ultimately lead him into staying at Arden St.
WELCOME TO THE NEW BOYS
Don’t be surprised if one of the Kangaroos top draft picks – McKercher or Duursma – takes up Harry Sheezel’s role at half-back in the early part of the season.
While it is still too early at training for positional giveaways, Sheezel is still training mostly with the defenders, where he played most of his stellar debut season, which saw him take home the club’s best and fairest award in year one.
But come round 1 next season the expectation is that Sheezel might move forward with some midfield cameo time, which means pick three McKercher or pick four Duursma could slot into the Rising Star’s former role.
All of the Kangaroos new draftees were on deck for their first session on Friday – midfielders McKercher and Duursma, ruckman Taylor Goad (who at 206cm is already the tallest Kangaroo), defenders Wil Dawson and Riley Hardeman and forward/ruck Finnbar Maley.
Larkey met with the draftees at breakfast on Friday, and can’t wait to start working with them, saying they are far more AFL-savvy than he was when he first came into the system.
“Each year it feels as if the boys who come in are more AFL ready … especially from when I was drafted (as pick 73 in the 2016 national draft).” Larkey said.
He is particularly pleased that the Kangaroos recruiting staff looked at stocking up on key position players after taking two midfielders with their first two selections.
“They (the recruiting team) love the middies (midfielders) and we have got some incredible midfield stocks now,” he said.
“But I was incredibly happy to see some key position players picked up in the end. We lost (defender) Benny McKay (to Essendon) … (but) Wil Dawson looks like a pretty solid, dour hard-nosed defender, so I am looking forward to coming up against him in the pre-season.”
CLARKO’S VALUED ‘AD’-DED ASSET
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson’s desire to spend some more time working one-on-one with his players has seen new Kangaroos assistant coach Jed Adcock running the pre-season training program.
Adcock was one of the club’s big off-season acquisitions – along with Michael Barlow – as he left the Brisbane Lions for Arden Street, after seven seasons under Chris Fagan.
The highly-rated assistant is responsible for mapping out most of the pre-season sessions, which provides Clarkson with a greater chance to get his hands dirty on an individual level.
Clarkson watched on for the early part of Friday’s session before working closely with some of the guys in the rehab group, including some kicking drills with Charlie Comden, who is working to come back from a sickening broken leg suffered in April.
Larkey said it was always good to have fresh ideas, but also stressed the stability that Clarkson had provided the club had been reassuring for the group.
“Every year it (the game plan) gets tweaked, but the difference is that this year we have the foundations of the game plan,” he said.
“In most of our years being here we have had to adjust to a whole new game plan because there have been different coaches.
“But with Clarko being here, we are building on the foundation of last year.
“(Stability) has been unfamiliar to me … it is comforting having familiar faces … I haven’t had that in a lot of my years at North. It can be exhausting when you get a whole new coaching staff and a new coach and you are trying to prove yourself (to them) again.
“It’s nice having that consistency this year. I’m sure we’re going to have it for years to come.”
PIES SIZZLE IN SUN
It was suns out, guns out at Collingwood on Friday as some premiership heroes got a head start on pre-season.
The Magpies will take the first steps into training on Monday when first to four year players are required back, with older player not due back until December 4, but that didn’t hold back some Pies from a heated session before the weekend.
The likes of Josh Daicos, Isaac Quaynor, Pat Lipinski, Jeremy Howe, Oleg Markov, John Noble and Dan McStay pounded through a running session and some ball work and soaked up the morning sun.
Forward McStay will be ready to hit pre-season from day one, after a medial ligament injury in the preliminary final robbed him of the chance to play in a premiership side.
He participated in the session without any strapping or signs of that sore knee.
Noble, who was dropped before the club’s qualifying final, trained in a “2023 premiers” Collingwood top.
Markov found himself in full voice when he snapped a goal from the pocket as the Pies finished with some tricks.
Only a few hundred metres away, a group of Melbourne players worked through their own unofficial session, with winger Lachie Hunter and forwards Jacob van Rooyen and Bayley Fritsch among the cohort.
Like Collingwood, Melbourne’s younger players don’t need to be back on track until Monday.
GIBCUS SHINES AT TIGER TRAINING
The Richmond fans peering through the fence from Punt Rd on Friday morning were in for a welcome sight with youngster Josh Gibcus powering through a strong running session.
The Tigers defender spent a week in Qatar last month in a bid to solve his ongoing hamstring problems, an injury that ruled him out of the entire 2023 season.
But Gibcus appeared to be running at full speed on Friday, charging through some sprint work away from the main group of mostly first to four year Tigers.
Gibcus worked on some leading patterns as a forward and had no problems pushing off into a sprint on hook leads and marking at speed.
He also joined in some early drills.
Richmond sees the young tall as a budding star defender and he showed strong signs of that trajectory across 18 games in his debut year in 2022.
Gibcus was joined for a short time away from the main group by draftees Kane McAuliffe and Liam Fawcett, who both flew in from South Australia on Thursday night.
Marlion Pickett again joined the young Tigers on track, alongside star defender Nick Vlastuin and Jack Ross jogged some laps.
Superstar Dustin Martin was not at training but has been a regular in the past two weeks despite not being officially required back until Monday.
Midfielder Thomson Dow’s work through a ball movement drill was described as “awesome” by new coach Adem Yze, while Hugo Ralphsmith and Judson Clarke moved well.
Clarke left the track early after a collision feeling for his left shoulder but was able to put his arm above his head and while sore, appeared to be fine.
He missed the end of last season with a cracked scapula.
Sam Banks also limped off the track with a lower right leg injury.
Maurice Rioli moved strongly on track and powered through some laps, while Tyler Sonsie has had a bright start to the pre-season.
Big man Mate Colina, who had his 2023 wiped out by a back injury, moved well and showed the athleticism that saw him finish high in the club’s 2km time trial despite standing at 211cm tall.
A set shot at goal showed Colina still has some rough edges to iron out.
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Originally published as AFL Track Watch: Collingwood, North Melbourne and Richmond hit the track for pre-season
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