Sam Durdin will make his long awaited return to action this weekend as he lines up for Werribee in its VFL practice match against Coburg on Saturday afternoon.
The number 16 pick in the 2014 National Draft hasn’t played a match since last June, with shoulder and foot surgeries keeping him confined to the rehabilitation group.
With a significant portion of North Melbourne’s list granted permission to play, there could be as many as 16 Kangaroos in action.
Development coach Ben Dyer says the extra miles in the players’ legs will prove invaluable.
“There are some players [Ben Jacobs, Durdin, etc] who need it from that point of view,” Dyer told NMFC.com.au.
“Others have had a few hit-outs this pre-season already, and plus there’s the added bonus of getting them all playing together with Werribee for the first time in a match.
“It’s a bit of a milestone from that point of view as well, which will be good.”
While the natural inclination would be to rule out those playing on Saturday from Round 1 AFL action, that’s far from the case.
“The main reason to get these guys in is if they don’t end up playing in Round 1, they won’t have played for a couple of weeks,” Dyer said.
“Werribee don’t have any matches scheduled for Easter weekend, so otherwise it would have been a fortnight between matches.”
For Jacobs, with no intra-club matches and just two NAB Challenge appearances under his belt in 2016, the opportunity for one more tune-up was something he jumped at.
“Obviously because I’ve just had an interrupted pre-season, it’ll be good to get another game under the belt and try to keep working to get better,” the midfielder said.
“I’m a bit behind everyone so it’s just a matter of getting an extra game.
“There’s so many of us [North representatives] playing so I’m super excited for it. I haven’t had that before because of the VFL split so it should be fun.”
Werribee v Coburg
Saturday March 19
2:30pm, Highgate Recreation Reserve
VFL practice match
North-listed players likely to take part
Ryan Clarke, Majak Daw, Trent Dumont, Sam Durdin, Will Fordham, Mitchell Hibberd, Ben Jacobs, Brad McKenzie, Declan Mountford, Aaron Mullett, Robbie Nahas, Braydon Preuss, Joel Tippett, Kayne Turner, Corey Wagner, Mason Wood
