Emerging key forward Peter Wright has spent a lot of his pre-season campaign soaking up information like a sponge from part-time specialist coach Barry Hall.
The 20-year-old booted 27 goals from 17 games last season to announce himself as a future star of the competition and is using the 2005 Sydney Swans premiership captain as a mentor as he looks to take his game to another level this year.
Wright admits he has a lot to improve in his game before he gets to the elite bracket and while there is a strong focus on getting fitter and stronger, the Moonee Valley junior is also developing his craft under the guidance of Hall, who booted 746 goals in 289 games for St Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs.
“Working alongside Barry Hall, who’s new to the staff up here, I’m loving working with him,” Wright told AFL Tonight on Monday evening.
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“Working a lot with him with the physical side of things, getting separation on leads and just the high balls coming in, the contest side of things.
“Obviously he was better than anyone in the game when he was going around so he’s been really good for me and the other forwards, and defenders as well in teaching us those traits and hopefully that starts to drip-feed into my game.”
The SUNS have an unblemished record heading into their final JLT Community Series game this Thursday against the Western Bulldogs and are looking for a strong year on-field after a couple of lean seasons.
Despite chairman Tony Cochrane describing 2017 as a ‘make-or-break year’ to the media in February after the opening of the club’s $22 million training and administration base, the SUNS playing list aren’t putting expectations or a ceiling on what they can achieve this season.
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“We’re not placing expectations on ourselves as such,” Wright said.
“We’re going into this season feeling really fresh, we’ve had a really strong pre-season. We’ve got for the first time in a few years a really healthy list, which we’re looking forward to some really strong competition for spots.
“For us, we’re looking forward to a strong season. We’re not putting a ceiling on what we can achieve as such, we’re just aiming to have a strong showing against the reigning premiers on Thursday and moving into round one.
“From there we’re just looking to grow our wins and growing that winning culture.”
