DEVELOPING forward James Sicily hopes to be front and centre in the coaches’ thoughts if an opportunity opens up in Hawthorn’s forward line anytime soon.
Fresh from a five-goal haul for Box Hill Hawks in their 62-point win against Williamstown at the weekend, the second-year Hawk is starting to consistently make his mark at VFL level.
The 20-year-old made his AFL debut in Round 2 against Essendon – who the Hawks will play for the second time this season on Saturday – and is confident he is doing the right things to push for senior selection.
“I’ve had a couple of good games this year, which is good, and I’m trying to put my hand up for selection but there’s a lot of good players in our AFL team at the moment,” he said.
“If the opportunity’s there to play, I want to be the first one on the list to step up.
“Hopefully I can string a couple more good games together and see what happens.”
Sicily believes he is tracking better than last year.
He’s finding continuity with the Hawks’ structures, and knows what he has to do to push for AFL selection.
“I’m getting used to the system and how the game’s played,” he said.
“(Now) it’s more adding another string to my bow - being able to push up onto the wing more regularly, being more familiar in that environment around stoppages and still working on my defensive side of things.
“As a forward, you either win or lose, so if you don’t win, it’s making sure you’re defending well and trying to keep the ball in there.”
With 12 goals in his past four VFL matches, Sicily is having an impact on the scoreboard and trying to be constantly involved in the game.
He said a fast start had been key to his performance against Williamstown at the weekend.
“So far this year I’ve been really quiet in first quarters, so to start the game off well was a real confidence-booster, and I think that set up the rest of the game for me,” Sicily said.
Having ruckman Ben McEvoy feed an on-ball brigade led by Jonathan Simpkin (31 disposals) and Alex Woodward (29 disposals) – and fellow forwards Sam Grimley and Tim O’Brien also posing a threat up forward also helped.
“Our midfielders got on top early, and big boy McEvoy was giving everyone first use,” Sicily said.
“The mids delivered the ball pretty well to us up forward on the day.
“Grimmers kicked five as well, and big TO kicked three – it’s good to have multiple options up forward.”
Sicily labelled the Box Hill Hawks’ win on Sunday as “probably the best game we’ve played for the year” – a win which saw them leapfrog Williamstown at the top of the VFL ladder.
“We moved the ball really well and really chopped them up,” he said.
“We did play very well. We’ve got a lot of AFL-listed guys out there that have had AFL exposure.
“We’re setting ourselves up for a good back end of the year.”
