Draftees Jarrod Pickett, Caleb Marchbank, Paul Ahern and Pat McKenna arrived at the club on Monday afternoon after being selected by the GIANTS in last Thursday’s NAB AFL Draft.
The quartet joined PM CAPITAL GIANTS Academy players Jack Steele and Jeremy Finlayson who began pre-season training with the club in November after being pre-selected at the Father-Son and Academy bidding meeting.
The Victorian trio of Marchbank, Ahern and McKenna were met by Welfare Manager Craig Lambert and Head of Development Brett Hand at Sydney Airport on Monday, along with West Australian Pickett who had boarded a 5.30am flight from his home town of Perth.
They were introduced to their new teammates by coach Leon Cameron in the gym on Monday afternoon and it will be a whirlwind week for the new players who kicked off their first night in Sydney with a dinner with the club’s coaches and leadership group.
Then it was off to Breakfast Point to settle into their new homes with Indigenous duo Ahern and Pickett living in one apartment and Marchbank and McKenna paired up in another. Steele and Finlayson have already become accustomed to their new surroundings, moving in with Rehab and Development Coach Nick Walsh a couple of weeks earlier.
Tuesday saw the four new players hit the gym for the first time as well as tick off their podiatry and mouthguard appointments. They also heard from 2013 draftee Josh Kelly and Adam Treloar, who has been at the club since the very beginning, about what to expect along their journey.
The four new players will join in training for the first time on Wednesday morning and have a host of education sessions over the coming days.
They’ll get their first rest on Thursday with a scheduled players’ day off although they’ll meet up with the club’s first and second year players, known as the Dwarves, for dinner that night.
With Finlayson sidelined after hip surgery and Steele having already completed the dreaded 3km time trial, Friday will be the big test for the four newbies, along with their first full weights session in the gym.
It’s an action-packed schedule for the new GIANTS who will head to Noosa on December 14 with the rest of the playing group ahead of the Christmas break, before setting their sights on the 2015 season.
