A return to a familiar role has allowed Sam Durdin to find his groove with Werribee.

The 19-year-old has spent time in the ruck, in a move brought about by necessity.

The pre-season suspension of Braydon Preuss left a hole in the Werribee side and with Majak Daw unable to ruck the entire game by himself, Durdin was called in to help.

“Since I’ve been at North it’s definitely the most I’ve played in the ruck,” Durdin told NMFC.com.au.

Before he was drafted, Durdin excelled in the ruck as a junior and amassed 48 hit-outs in West Adelaide’s Under 18 Grand Final win.

“I’ve probably been about 30 per cent in the ruck, I feel like it gets me in the game a bit more, up the ground and able to impact a bit.

“I quite enjoyed it on the weekend (against Frankston), up against some bigger bodies.”

Durdin kicked four goals against the Dolphins and gained some much needed confidence from the performance. He’s also been tapping into some valuable resources in order to improve his game.

“Myself, Benny McKay and Drew (Petrie), we’ve all worked together. We watch a lot of vision together and learn a lot off Drew and (Jarrad) Waitey too, who’s playing really good footy at the moment.

“It’s working really well and I understand the game style, plan and the positioning.

“Once you understand that you’re able to impact a bit more.”

A quirk of the fixture meant Durdin and Werribee enjoyed last weekend off despite it being just Round 3 of the VFL season.

For the teenager, it was a welcome rest as he continues to build his fitness after season-ending shoulder and foot injuries in 2015.

“Playing four games and then having a break – if it was like that all year I think we’d all be pretty happy,” Durdin joked.

“When you have the break you have to make sure you’re ready to go when you do get back. You can’t do anything too silly, so it’s about staying in the mode of football. It’s not a holiday so that’s the main idea.

“We all made the most of the break and just freshened up, which was good. Hopefully against Footscray we can use the fresh legs that we have to knock them off.”

Durdin believes Saturday’s match against the Bulldogs could set up Werribee’s season.

“We’re two and zip which is a real positive start. That’s where we expected to be and we’ve got the job done so far,” he said.

“This year’s great with all the North boys together in one team. We get along really well with the Werribee players and it’s all going really well at the moment. Hopefully this weekend we can make it three and zip.”