Dubbed ‘The Bull’ for his ferocious attack on the ball and man, young North Melbourne forward Cameron Zurhaar says he won’t change the way he plays despite the AFL’s crackdown on heavy hits.
“The way I play my football is the way the team wants me to play,” Zurhaar told North Media.
“It’s never my intention to injure someone on the field so I’m definitely not going to change my mindset.”
The Bull was seeing red on Saturday ???? 1/2 pic.twitter.com/n9WzuLLrwP
— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) July 13, 2020
Zurhaar’s stance comes after Essendon’s Dylan Shiel and St Kilda’s Ben Long received two and three week bans respectively, for aggressive high hits.
“It’s a bit unlucky when someone gets injured from a bump but I think you’ve just got to be a bit smart and just go for the ball,” Zurhaar added.
The fixture is also being crunched with news of extended periods in interstate, and Zurhaar said the shorter breaks between games will present a different challenge.
“I think it will be a good challenge,” he said.
“Injuries and body soreness will have to be managed, obviously we have shorter game time but it’s still a very physical sport and there’s a lot of bumps and bruises and short term niggles that will effect players every week.
“I don’t think it will be possible for everyone to play every single game because of potential injury so it will be a real test of depth of your squad.”