Season review: James Sicily

In brief

AFL matches: 3

Average disposals per game: 12.7

Goals: 4

VFL matches: 16

Average disposals per game: 15.3

Goals: 30

Review

EXCITING young forward James Sicily showed plenty of promise in his second year as a Hawk.

Sicily, who was recruited with pick 56 in the 2013 NAB AFL Draft, was a consistent contributor at VFL level for Box Hill Hawks.

The 20-year-old also broke through for his AFL debut, playing three senior matches in total during 2015.

Sicily’s debut came early in the season, when he was a late inclusion for the Hawks’ Round 2 clash against Essendon.

He came into the game in the first quarter after starting as the substitute, replacing injured defender James Frawley.

Sicily finished with 10 disposals and a goal on debut, before returning for the Hawks’ Round 22 and Round 23 matches against Brisbane Lions and Carlton respectively.

In all three matches his showed promising signs, with a two-goal, 16-disposal effort against Brisbane Lions arguably the best of his three AFL matches.

In between his senior appearances, Sicily was an integral part of the Box Hill Hawks’ side that reached its third consecutive grand final.

He finished with 30 goals from 16 matches at VFL level, 18 of which came in three games.

The strong-marking, mid-sized forward kicked two bags of five goals in the first half of the VFL season – in Round 6 against Sandringham and Round 10 against Williamstown.

After a couple of quiet weeks in front of goal in the middle of the season, and a hand injury that kept him out of action for two weeks in August, Sicily returned to take Northern Blues to the sword.

He kicked 8.2 against the Blues and was immediately promoted to the senior team, before returning to Box Hill during their finals campaign and kicking five goals from two finals.

GM - Football Operations Chris Fagan says...

“James played some standout games for Box Hill, he kicked eight in one game and kicked five in two other games," Fagan said.

“He’s definitely got the ability to kick goals and a lot of them.

“He’s improved his composure on field. In the couple of the games he played in the AFL side, he managed to hit the scoreboard and did some useful things.

“Hopefully he’s walked away from this season believing strongly that he’s got the ability to push his way into the AFL side. He’ll need to continue to develop his game over the summer and keep working on making his body stronger.

“We’ve certainly got high hopes for him – he’s got a lot of attributes that would suggest that he’s going to be an excellent player for the Hawks.”