THE Kangaroos’ ability to score freely throughout their NAB Cup campaign despite only a modest contribution from chief spearhead Nathan Thompson will give the club confidence it can kick winning scores in the big forward’s absence, according to defender Drew Petrie.

The Kangaroos were the only team to kick two scores of 100 points or more during the pre-season competition, with last year’s leading goalkicker Thompson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last week, contributing just four of the Roos’ 44 goals in their three games.

Petrie said that while Thompson would be a huge loss, he was confident the Roos would have enough firepower to cover his absence.

“It was pretty evident last year that if Thommo didn't kick a few goals we were going to struggle a little bit,” Petrie said. “I know we’ve only played a few games this year, but during the NAB Cup he hasn’t kicked too many goals – our new guys have been kicking the bulk of our scores.

“Thommo will obviously be a huge loss given he kicked something like 60 goals last year so we have to find them and a few more to kick consistently high scores each week, but it’s looking like a few blokes will be able to step up.”

Petrie said the club had unearthed some exciting goalscoring talent over the pre-season, with Aaron Edwards, coming off a 100-goal season at VFL club Frankston last year, and crumbing forwards Lindsay Thomas and Matthew Campbell, providing an extra element to the Roos’ new forward structure.

But while much of the excitement during the pre-season has centred on Thomas and Campbell in particular, Petrie reckons old-hands such as Corey Jones and Shannon Grant will also be important in the wake of Thompson’s injury.

“Shannon and Jonesy are in that elite group of mid-sized players who can kick a bag of goals,” Petrie said.

“I don’t think we can rely on those young guys to kick us scores on their own, so experienced guys like Jonesy, Shagga or even someone like Brent Harvey will have to take on more responsibility in that area.”

Petrie has also been impressed by the progress made by his former rucking partner David Hale, who has spent the off-season conditioning himself to play at centre half-forward.

“Even before Thommo went down, Haley was always going to play a lot more footy at centre half-forward this year. His pre-season has been geared around that and what he’s done at centre half-forward in the simulated match practice we’ve had over the past six months has been really encouraging.

“He’s surprisingly nimble, which is a very good asset for a big bloke. He and someone like Hamish McIntosh, who can also shift forward, obviously have that height advantage, but they are both very good when it hits the deck, so things are pretty exciting.”