One mark was all it took to persuade Simon Goodwin to not substitute younger ahead Jacob van Rooyen out of Melbourne’s conflict with Richmond.
The 20-year-old had a team-low 4 touches and little influence to three-quarter time on Monday night time.
But his hovering seize on the shoulders of Noah Balta early within the decisive closing time period modified Goodwin’s thoughts.
“He took one mark,” the coach defined.
“He was pretty much coming off at his next rotation – we were about to sub him out.
“Then he took a few clunks and we stated, ‘Keep going, son. You’re away now.'”
Van Rooyen’s subsequent goal and another four minutes later gave Melbourne a 16-point lead after they had trailed Tigers by 25 during the second term.
The rising star held his nerve with three of his four set shots in the last quarter and capped his match-winning cameo with the Demons’ sealer.
“We’ve been working with Jacob about staying within the now,” Goodwin stated.
“It won’t be your second proper now however you may have one in a while, and he had a very good final quarter.”
The No.19 draft pick in 2021, van Rooyen had to bide his time in Melbourne’s reserves side last year as he developed.
He kicked three goals on his AFL debut in round three this season and has now kicked nine in four appearances.
“We put a variety of expectation on younger key forwards and he is nonetheless discovering his approach at AFL stage,” Goodwin stated.
“He’s solely performed (4) video games of AFL footy so he is simply going to proceed to construct and get higher and higher.
“He’s going to need the experience of guys around him and he’ll have games where he doesn’t impact like tonight for three quarters.
“But over time we have got somebody who we expect will proceed to evolve into a very good AFL participant for us.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
