The defender instead played for Werribee on Sunday in a VFL practice match and while his teammates will have the next few days off, the defender will opt to do some extra training sessions.
“I’m already missing one game of footy this year, so I don’t want to miss any more. I was happy to be out there today despite it being 10 degrees and raining,” McMahon told NMFC.com.au after the Tigers' narrow loss.
“I’m planning to come into the club this week to do extra running sessions and get some additional work in to make up for what I missed with my limited pre-season as well as the suspension.”
McMahon said conditions were tough in Craigieburn for the VFL practice match against Coburg and he blamed poor team defence for the five-point loss.
“We were missing some important boys in the backline with Ayden Kennedy, Taylor Hine and Nathan Grima all playing for North on Saturday. Defensively, as a unit, I don’t think we worked well enough and Coburg had a pretty strong side out there.
“It was blowing an absolute gale but we did our best and there was still some good signs from our boys who all pulled up well and it was good there were no injuries out of it. I was also happy to play 100 per cent game time.”
McMahon said draftee Mason Wood was impressive, kicking a goal in very windy conditions.
“With how the weather was, it probably wasn’t Mason’s day today but in saying that, he still worked his butt off.
“He’s always hitting up giving guys coming through the middle an option. But it wasn’t really a tall, long, leading forward’s game and he was outnumbered in the contest. He still competed well and generated some shots on goal.”
Development coach John Lamont said there were also a few positives from rookies Ben Speight and Tim McGenniss.
“Speight won the ball well and brought others into the game at various times and McGenniss did a couple of good things. Some positive efforts and we’re looking for further improvement from those boys,” Lamont said.
North development coach and Werribee midfielder Jarred Moore said it was a tough day but the work effort was impressive from everyone.
“We had a disappointing first half of the first quarter which let us down and we ran out of legs defensively in the last quarter,” Moore said.
“It was close scoring but a very patchy game. The boys worked hard and did the best they could today.”
Werribee 13.7.85
Coburg 14.6.90
Goals: Warren 4, Maric 2, Ross, McGennis, Wood, Tudor, Jones, Keras, Mather
