POWER forward Jacob van Rooyen is ready to be unleashed at AFL level and will make his long-awaited debut at AFL level this Sunday at the MCG.
The 19-year-old, 193cm spearhead kicked 36 goals in his first season of VFL football, endearing himself to Melbourne fans with big bags of goals including a six-goal haul against North Melbourne.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin explained the need to be patient with young, key-position prospects.
“We’ve known for a while we've got an exciting prospect at our fingertips. But you've got to make sure with guys like Jake that they're ready to play. AFL footy is a challenging game,” Goodwin says.
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“He's worked incredibly hard at VFL level to develop his game over the last two years.
“You need to be ready, as a 19-to-20-year-old coming into AFL footy as a power forward, you need your game in really good shape and we feel like we've been patient with him and got him to a point where it's time to unleash him.”
The 19th selection in the 2021 National Draft impressed in his first outing for the year, taking 11 marks and kicking a goal from 19 disposals in last Saturday’s VFL opener against the Bulldogs.
The absence of Max Gawn for the weekend’s clash with Sydney means the Demons will enter the match with a retooled forward line that includes the young goal-kicker.
“We've been pretty hard on him about getting his game to the right level in terms of what we want from him, and he's continued to execute that through pre-season in the first few weeks,” Goodwin says.
“That's exciting for us. It's exciting for our supporters, it's exciting for everyone in the game, to see a young power forward come into the game.
“We're excited by it, but we certainly won't put too much pressure on him.
“He's still got some things in these games that we need to work on, but he's an exciting prospect for our supporters and our footy team.”
