Fremantle’s decision to leave Jye Amiss out of Thursday night’s practice match certainly raised eyebrows, but club great Paul Hasleby believes it’ll send a great message to the young gun.
Amiss wasn’t named on the field nor Fremantle’s bench for what was eventually a 31-point win over Port Adelaide in Perth. It came after a quiet performance last week when the 19-year-old was well held by Adelaide’s defence.
Taken with pick eight in the 2021 National Draft, Amiss is seen as the future of the club’s forward line and impressed with four goals in three games last year.
The Dockers instead preferred Matt Taberner, Josh Treacy, Nat Fyfe and Sam Sturt as options over Amiss on Thursday, and Hasleby now can’t see the youngster lining up in a fortnight’s time.
“That tells you that you can rule a line through Jye Amiss for Round 1, particularly if Fremantle go well and they don’t get any injuries to their key forwards,” he said on SEN WA’s The Run Home.
However, Hasleby doesn’t consider that a negative. All of the Dockers’ key forwards hit the scoreboard in what was a comprehensive win, and Amiss – who has previously been tipped to boot 40 goals in 2023 – has plenty of development in him.
“(It sends a) great message, absolute great message. We see it sometime with high picks… he’s just not ready. High picks, they always get a really good look at it because the club invests a lot and the supporters want to see the high picks play straight away, but I reckon it’s great if he doesn’t,” Hasleby noted.
“It means they’ve got more confidence in the other players, but longer term he’s the one they’ve got to get absolutely flying. Whether that’s this year or next, I still think he’s so important.
“But this will help him in the long run, he’s clearly got some things to work on and he didn’t do much to be fair last week, its not like they didn’t give him a chance.
“He’ll bounce back, he’s a quality player, it’s just going to take a bit longer.”
Amiss isn’t known to be carrying an injury and had impressed across the majority of the trade period.
The Dockers are clearly confident in Amiss if assistant coach Matthew Boyd’s comments are anything to go by, but Justin Longmuir has previously suggested the club is happy to give him time.
“He’s a 19-year-old trying to play as a key forward. We need a little bit of patience with him,” the coach said.
“He’s got to get fitter, get stronger, keep doing what he’s been doing across the pre-season so far.
“It’s not so much a long-term project. It takes time with young key forwards, especially when they’re playing on, quality mature defenders.
“On the flip side, we’re happy with his development. He showed last year he can have an impact for us.
“The more opportunity he gets, the better he’ll be.”