North Melbourne’s Jaidyn Stephenson has “ground to make up” after his off-season slip up.
The 22-year-old ended up with a fractured hip as a result of a boozy bike mishap in August which will likely scupper his best-laid pre-season plans.
It’s not the first time Stephenson has been in the headlines for a less than regulation act after he was suspended and fined in 2019 for betting on footy matches when he was a Collingwood player.
There is no denying he is a super talent, but with some questionable decisions made so early in his fledgling career, are the Kangaroos worried?
Head coach David Noble acknowledges that Stephenson needs to lift, revealing that some “strong discussions” have been had.
“I was really clear with him, he’s got ground to make up,” Noble said on SEN Breakfast.
“I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily broken the trust, but those elements of what we’re trying to stand for and what we’re trying to get our guys to understand is it’s not being a professional nine months of the year. It’s being a professional 12 months of the year and understanding the benefit we’ve got.
“We only have to look at how our society, particularly here in Victoria, has functioned with the difficulties of lockdown and the privilege that we’ve had to still have our game played.
“They’re the strong discussions that I’ve had with him, is that he’s got ground to make up.
“I’m sure he’ll learn from this and we’ll be there to support him and step him through when it gets to that next point in making a decision, that hopefully he makes a better one next time.”
How direct was Noble in the discussions? Did he indicate to Stephenson that it was his last chance?
“I don’t think we got that pointy. I was pretty firm with him and I was extremely disappointed,” he added.
“You want to make sure he’s ok, he’s safe and his injury is not going to be long term, but I can be pretty direct and firm.
“You can only do that once you’ve built good relationships with the guys and spending time getting to know them is really important. They’re a young group and we’re a generation apart so being able to spend time and understand and get to know them is really important.”
The Stephenson skylarking aside, it has been a fairly busy post-season for the Roos who have pulled off some shrewd business when it comes to player acquisition.
They added Callum Coleman-Jones from Richmond, lost Robbie Tarrant to the Tigers in the same deal, fought off interest from St Kilda to keep Tristan Xerri and also poached Hugh Greenwood from the Gold Coast Suns after they strategically delisted the midfielder.
How the Kangaroos were alerted to availability of Suns midfielder.
Noble explained the mindset behind recruiting developing ruck-forward Coleman-Jones who will provide depth behind veteran Todd Goldstein and alongside Xerri.
“We were really excited to secure that deal, we think it’s another great get for our footy club going forward,” he said of the ex-Tiger.
“We’re not sure how many years ‘Goldy’ (Goldstein) has got left. We know that Tristan Xerri (is there) as well, we’re really excited to see how he’s going to take up the challenge.
“The three of them can battle it out for a couple of spots.”
The Kangas coach also highlighted why the club fought so hard to retain the services of Xerri despite him exploring his options, which included the Saints.
“We didn’t see ‘CJ’ (Coleman-Jones) coming in to be a replacement for Tristan at all,” he added.
“We need internal competition and I explained that to Tristan the first time he rang and said, ‘Look, there may be an opportunity’.
“We said, ‘We have no problems in you exploring it, we understand that there’s a business side of it, so there’s a value perspective, but we really want to continue to work with you, we’ve put four years into it, we feel there’s great growth for you, we played you for eight-nine games this year, we’ve got a really good handle on where we think we can target improvement’.
“To Tristan’s credit, since that deal didn’t go down, he’s virtually been in at the club on his own bat three or four times a week. He looks in terrific condition and we’ve got a really strong relationship.”
There has been a flurry of activity at Arden Street in recent weeks and that will continue when they use pick 1 at the National Draft next week, most likely on immensely talented South Australian youngster Jason Horne-Francis.