Pre-season six-packRohan Connolly
March 17, 2012TEAMS can make of the pre-season competition what they choose, be it a statement of intent for the year ahead, a chance to experiment and see what happens, perhaps even both at the same time.
But the NAB Cup can turn up some even more profound results on an individual level, giving us a tantalising glimpse of which players we might be talking about quite a bit between now and September.
That's been the case again this February and March, with a healthy number of new kids on the block demanding attention, a few more established hands looking to have taken another step, and the odd surprise packet from left-field making us wonder whether we might have to reassess their worth.
As the pre-season draws to a conclusion and the counting of days until the real stuff hits single figures, here's half-a-dozen whose dress rehearsals have been impressive enough to leave you potentially thinking, to quote an old rock standard, you ain't seen nothing yet.
SHANE TUCK (Richmond)Remember "Terminator", the sci-fi flick where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg assassin it seems to take nothing short of a nuclear arsenal to kill off? That's Shane Tuck.
The veteran on-baller has gone in and out of fashion at Punt Road more times than platform shoes. Now he's doing it again.
Tuck was studiously ignored for most of last year by the Tiger brainstrust, playing just four games in 18 rounds. But in the last six games, he averaged 25 possessions, good enough to win him another reprieve. And in this NAB Cup, he's been even harder to ignore.
While Richmond's impressive pre-season has centred around Dustin Martin's great form, and its future clearly rests with names like Cotchin, Deledio, Riewoldt and Co, the 30-year-old just won't go away.
As usual, he's been less obtrusive but pretty effective, ranked No.1 across the league for contested possession, those ball magnet qualities a more-than-handy complement to the silk of the younger hands.
And if that creates a problem of sorts for newly-extended senior coach Damien Hardwick, it's a pleasant problem. Yes, Tuck's disposal can be questionable. Yes, the Tigers need a little more silk in their armoury yet. But it's going to be hard once again to disregard a bloke who can consistently find the ball and simply bang it forward. A quality you simply can't afford to kill.
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