North Melbourne fans can expect to see new recruit Jasper Pittard in action during the upcoming JLT Community Series, with the defender overcoming a minor calf injury.
After a modified pre-season, the former Port Adelaide player says he’s ready to ramp up his preparation ahead of Round 1.
“I can’t wait for this weekend,” Pittard told North Media.
“It’ll be a bit more of a step-up from last week (the practice match against Geelong) and I’ll be pretty much playing a full game.
“There’s only the two games to go before Round 1, so we’ll all be busting to make sure we do our bit.”
While the 27-year-old was sidelined for much of the pre-season, the JLT Series and Round 1 was never in doubt.
“The calf injury wasn’t a serious setback,” he said.
“It happened just a couple of weeks before Christmas, it was pretty minor.
“The protocol here at North is to get on top of those things, and with the long pre-season we’ve got a bit more time, but if it was in season, I potentially would have come back a bit quicker.
“I had time up my sleeve to make sure we got that right, as well as making sure that when I came back, I wasn’t getting any other injuries.”
Last Wednesday’s hit-out with Geelong was the first time the defender was able to play alongside his new teammates.
While he missed the summer’s match simulations and City v Country match, Pittard says there were very few hiccups in his integration into the side.
“It was great to finally put the colours on and have a run around against an opposition,” he said.
“I thought it was a really good team performance from us, we were a little bit wayward in front of goal, but there was a lot of promising signs.
“Initially it was awesome coming in and training with the full squad pre-Christmas.
“When I was on the sidelines for a bit in rehab it was a bit lonely, but there’s nothing like being able to train on the track and build those relationships with my teammates.
“It’s a great bunch of guys, they’ve made all of us feel super welcome and it’s a really inclusive club as a whole.”
North Melbourne will take on St Kilda at Avalon Airport Oval this Saturday from 1.10pm AEDT, with the squad set to be named on Thursday evening.
