North has had its share of injuries to key big men during the pre-season, but the form of its emerging talls will certainly excite the club’s fans.

The Roos’ younger brigade was on show during a VFL practice match against the Northern Blues on Sunday, with several key-position players standing tall.

In attack Nick Larkey and Ben McKay led the way, while down back it was Sam Durdin who caught the eye of the development coaches.

Coming off four goals last week, Larkey was again influential. 

“He kicked 3.3. It was the same as the week before; he was just on the move all the time and was really hard to defend,” Development Manager Ben Dyer told NMFC.com.au.

“His movement is just drawing the ball and he was really impressive again, two weeks in a row.”

Lightly-framed at 198 centimetres and 85 kilograms, Larkey has work to do in the gym, but it certainly isn’t affecting his performances. 

“His contested marking is something he’s doing a lot of work on and that will take time, and that will come with a bigger frame,” Dyer said.

“He’s just got such great movement that he compensates for his lack of size, by just getting on the move.

“It’s impressive, because some of that stuff can be hard to teach. He’s just got a real feel for the game.”

McKay is already seeing the benefits of a year in a professional environment, pulling down some strong contested marks against the Blues.

The 19-year-old had five shots on goal, forming a lively combination with Larkey in attack.

“He got on the move a lot more this week. He was looking to hit up and drew the footy a bit more,” Dyer said.

“He was able to bring the runners into the game by taking a hit-up mark and then feeding off.”

At the other end of the ground, Durdin did his chances of a debut no harm.

With Scott Thompson out of the side due to suspension, Durdin and fellow defender Ed Vickers-Willis are waiting in the wings.

“Durds had a couple of good intercept marks and was able to spoil when he was out of position. His defensive stuff was pretty strong,” Dyer explained.

“He used the ball really well. From the last line of defence he was able to hit a couple of attacking options, allowing us to transition the ball pretty quickly.

“Because he’s such a nice kick, what could be a defensive situation where you are looking to bail out turns into an attacking one. He can hit that more dangerous option.”

Rookies Cameron Zurhaar and Matt Taylor were also influential, across half-forward and in defence respectively.

“Cam [Zurhaar] got involved helping us defend, but then he was able to get forward really quickly. He linked up with a few handball chains and kicked a nice goal on the run from about 50,” Dyer said.

“Just his work-rate to be covering almost two-thirds of the ground a lot of the time was impressive again.

“Matt found a lot of the ball and his run to receive was the most impressive part of his game.”

Through the middle, Jed Anderson made his presence felt in his third game back from a shoulder injury.

“He’s still building is endurance after that interruption in the pre-season,” Dyer said.

“He was really strong in the contested side of his game. It was a really high pressure game and he was able to win his share of ball inside as well.

“He’s had three games back now, so progressively he’ll be able to run the game out better every week.”

Corey Wagner was another player to put his name up for a recall in the coming weeks.

“He went through the wing again and just had really good GPS numbers,” Dyer said.

“He had some really good off-ball run to help out the defence. On the flipside he was working hard forward as well.

“From a work-rate point of view he was really strong, and he kicked it well too. It was a pretty balanced game from him.”

For developing ruckman Tom Jeffries, it was a big step in his development.

Set to be on the Roos’ rookie-list in 2018, the rugby union and rowing convert played a full game in the middle.

“That was his first game at senior VFL level,” Dyer added.

“He was able to ruck the whole time pretty much, because we didn’t have a backup ruckman. It was a really good experience for him to play on a bigger body that run him around the ground a bit. It tested his endurance and his game sense.

“He did some good things; he jumped really well in the ruck and was able to get forward and get involved a couple of times.”

Werribee will play another practice match on Saturday at Casey.