Jaeger O’Meara impressing at Hawthorn training and on track to play early in 2017 season
JAEGER O’Meara is on track to make his Hawthorn debut early in the season, with the former Sun impressing on the track and nearing a return to full training.
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HAWTHORN’S bold bid for Jaeger O’Meara is on track to reap early rewards as the star recruit storms towards an early-season comeback.
The Herald Sun can reveal the brilliant midfielder has targeted the first month of next season to make his long-awaited return from career-threatening knee injuries.
O’Meara, 22, turned heads on the club’s training camp in Mooloolaba late last month, delighting coaches and fitness staff with his running and skills work.
It was considered the best sign yet the smooth-moving ball-winner could be ready to play in about three months, with the Hawks slated to take on Geelong in the Round 4 Easter Monday blockbuster at the MCG on April 17.
He remains an outside chance to enter the frame for the Hawks’ season-opener against a rejuvenated Essendon at the MCG on Saturday night, March 25, but a Round 4 berth is considered more likely.
New Hawthorn football manager Jason Burt said O’Meara “has not missed a beat” this pre-season and had returned from the Christmas break “in great nick”.
“We could not be more happy with the way he is going,” Burt told the Herald Sun.
“It is pretty clear he wants to play as soon as he is ready … if that is in the first couple of months of the season then fantastic.
There was some skill in the gym at Peppers Seminyak and oh there was a guy from the Hawks. @THEBALIBIBLE @PeppersHotels pic.twitter.com/vNJ1xTqGmQ
— Danny Frawley (@SpudSays) January 10, 2017
“I’d like to think that it would be, and certainly if he continues to progress the way that he has, then you would have to think the early part of the season we will see him in our colours.”
The Hawks have taken a conservative approach with O’Meara, cautious to slowly build up his workload after almost 1000 days on the sidelines nursing patella tendon problems.
Burt said the club “had to really recondition” O’Meara’s rehabilitation program under fitness guru Andrew Russell, after five years at the Suns.
“He has been out for a long time, so Jaeger is not going to push things because he knows the result at the back end of the year is going to be pretty special,” Burt said.
The former Gold Coast Sun continues to make excellent progress this pre-season almost three months after the Hawks pulled off the biggest trade of the AFL exchange period to secure the Rising Star winner.
After losing star midfielders Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell and Brad Hill, the Hawks made a series of bold moves to help reopen their next premiership window, netting former Swans’ hard nut Tom Mitchell and ex-Tigers big man Tyrone Vickery in last year’s trade period.
In the biggest deal, Clarkson’s men parted with pick No.10 in last year’s draft and a future second-round selection to land O’Meara. The Hawks had already dealt this year’s first-round pick and two other second-round selections in an agreement with St Kilda.
O’Meara is considered a future captain of the Hawks.
“We were all mindful of what this young man could bring to us,” he said.
“We are not in a position to be impatient with him but we are thrilled with where he is at right now.
“He is a ripping young fella who has embraced our footy club and he wants to get better.”
O’Meara will face another key test in the coming weeks when he is integrated into full training and match simulation sessions.
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