Nick Haynes is nearing the end of the longest pre-season of his short career.

Having been sidelined since Round 8 last year due to a broken ankle, the young GIANTS defender can’t wait for the 2015 season to start.

Haynes has good reason to be optimistic about the year ahead. For starters, he has added an extra four kilograms to his frame during a punishing off-season.

The 22 year-old has also been mentored by dual Brisbane Lions best and fairest winner Joel Patfull who joined the GIANTS at the end of 2014.

As he prepares for the 2015 campaign, Haynes looks back at the last 12 months with mixed feelings.

"It was good to get in the team and play the first eight games,” he said of 2014.

"It was pretty frustrating (to get injured) but all I could do was look forward to the next year and try and put on a bit of size and work on areas I could and I think I’ve done that and hopefully I can stay injury-free this year."

Haynes has been one of the standouts on the track for the GIANTS during a gruelling pre-season campaign.

“It’s been pretty tough since coming back from Christmas. It’s the toughest by far.

“This is my fourth year now and a lot of other players are fourth year (players) as well so we’re a bit more mature and we can handle a bit more in our legs but the boys have taken it on pretty well and we’re looking pretty good.”

While the fourth year players are training harder than ever, it’s been the addition of experienced defender Joel Patfull that has been the most helpful to Haynes.

Patfull has passed on plenty of experience to young defenders such as Haynes, Aidan Corr and Lachie Plowman.

“He’s one of the best defenders in the comp and I’m actually trying to model my game a bit around him so I want to be the type of player he is,” he said.

“Everything he’s doing around training, I’m watching what he’s doing and trying to get his advice as well.”

Patfull’s ability to play on tall and small opponents is something Haynes is working hard to emulate.

With key defenders Phil Davis (kidney) and Tim Mohr (knee) sidelined for the early part of 2014, Haynes was faced with the task of playing on some of the AFL’s best key forwards including Sam Reid (Swans), Jay Schulz (Port Adelaide) and James Frawley (formerly Melbourne, now Hawthorn).

It was a challenge Haynes thrived on, earning himself the reputation of one of the GIANTS most valuable players despite often being undersized and missing the last 14 games.

“I didn’t think I would play key position at the start of the year so playing key position was a bit different.

"It gave me a lot of experience playing on some of the best forwards in the competition so it can only help me in the coming years.”


Having been selected by the GIANTS as pick seven in the 2011 NAB AFL Draft as a raw half forward weighing just 77kg, Haynes has made a concerted effort to add muscle to his light frame and now tips the scales at 90kg.

The added weight hasn’t kept the running defender grounded however with Haynes pulling in a big pack mark at training earlier this week.

“It just sat up alright, poor (Lachie) Whitfield was under it - I apologised later - but just clunked it so it was good.

“The boys love doing the match practice stuff. They’d much rather be doing that than normal running so they’re looking pretty sharp out on the track and the new boys are looking pretty exciting as well."

Having re-signed until the end of 2017, Haynes is looking to build on his 27 games and push towards the 50 games milestone this season.

With intra-club and NAB Challenge matches only weeks away, Haynes and his team mates are hopeful about the year ahead.

“We don’t want to put any limitations on it, obviously we’re looking good this pre-season and we’re going to go into games aiming to win each each game.”