How Tsatas can resurrect his career at North Melbourne

Delisted Essendon midfielder Elijah Tsatas has been given an AFL lifeline by North Melbourne.

The 22-year-old former Pick 5 was let go by the Bombers in September after four seasons and 22 AFL matches, but but has been picked up by the Kangaroos amid the delisted free agency window.

Tsatas was unable to force his way into Essendon’s midfield as a regular, and given North’s midfield is much stronger, will he have the same fate in royal blue and white?

SEN’s Julian De Stoop pondered what it might look like for Tsatas next year and beyond.

“I guess it's a bit of depth in the inside midfield position and he played a lot of junior footy with George Wardlaw and they were a pretty good combination,” said De Stoop on SEN Summer Run.

“But from Elijah's point of view of going to a club where he wants to play senior footy because he didn't get a look in at Essendon, is North a good fit for him given the strength they appear to have in those positions?”

In a bid to avoid a similar scenario at Arden Street, Josh Jenkins would like to see Tsatas strive to change the way he plays.

“Well, it is if he's looking at a positional change,” Jenkins said.

“He doesn't really have a great say in the matter does he, because he is a delisted free agent. So you’ve kind of got to go where there's an opportunity. It might be the only opportunity in the competition, so he might just have to take it.

“I would be exploring the positional shifts that he might be able to make.”

Could Tsatas become a rebounding defender? What about a connecting half-forward? Or even a permanent winger?

There have been questions on his kicking, but a role across half-back could allow him to nail down his in-match delivery by foot.

With all this in mind, Jenkins outlined the changes Tsatas should look at making in order to resurrect his AFL career.

“I maintain that he should give himself an opportunity at half-back. You don't need to be able to defend in one-on-ones that often if you're going to be a half-backer,” Jenkins continued.

“The game is just different. People will say he's not a good enough kick, or he doesn't do this, that or the other. The game is just so different at half-back. There's so much less pressure. You can see the game.

“Because to me, when you talk about his kicking, technically he's a really sound kick, his technique is fine, he can get the ball hand to foot quick enough. I think he could potentially make that shift, he covers the ground well enough to do that.

“I like it if he's looking at a positional change. Maybe it's at half-forward, maybe it's just going to be that other winger 100 per cent of the time. They’ve got Dylan Stephens on one wing and he wants to play on the other wing.

“I just think if he can look at a positional change, that's what might be able to unlock some more opportunity.”

De Stoop pointed out: “They've now got Nick Blakey. They've got Caleb Daniel. They've got Luke Parker (across half-back)…”

Jenkins says midfield opportunities will be harder to come by at North than a role in defence, before insisting that change can be as good as a holiday.

“Parker's probably into his last season. Daniel's not that far behind him,” he replied.

“You can never really have enough of those types of players. He’s not going to play much footy at all if he's waiting for Luke Davies-Uniacke, Harry Sheezel, Finn O’Sullivan, and Jy Simpkin is ahead of him.

“Can he be a connect player? I know North Melbourne are really looking for connecting half-forwards. Now you might look at him and think, ‘Oh, there's no chance he could play that role’, but you just don't know unless you give him six months across the summer to play that role.

“Attend every single forward meeting. Go and do vision on high half-forwards every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of the midfield stuff you've been doing and maybe it can look a bit differently.

“I’ve seen Tom Atkins go from lockdown defender to small forward to tagging midfielder. It can be done.”

Along with Tsatas, the Roos have also picked up discarded Richmond tall Samson Ryan and former Brisbane Lions back-up defender Darragh Joyce.