While much of the pre-season excitement around North Melbourne’s list has centred on Jason Horne-Francis and the club's other new draftees, the Kangaroos' 2020 draft class have also taken leaps forward over this past pre-season.
All five players selected in the 2020 NAB AFL Draft made their debuts last year, while rookie selection Patrick Walker was close to a senior bow before injury interrupted his campaign.
“Behind the scenes (Charlie) Lazzaro has taken another step through pre-season. Will Phillips ... has had a terrific pre-season, Tom Powell we know has got some enormous talent ... add in Ed Ford,” coach David Noble told SEN on Friday.
“Those guys have continued to move themselves forward and are applying pressure for selection.”
While Lazzaro, Powell and Ford all look to be in contention for a spot in North’s side for Round 1, Phillips will be sidelined due to his recent diagnosis of glandular fever.
Noble says the club is still looking for clarity on how long Phillips will be out for.
"We’re waiting for a second dose of some bloods to see if we can get a gauge to see if he’s in the back end of that cycle of glandular fever. We’ll have a little bit more information over the next couple of days.” Noble said.
"We’ll take our time with him. He won’t like that, no player ever does, but we want to make sure he’s fit and healthy when we get him up and going.
"We don’t want it to extend beyond what it cycles through because we’ve given him too much training too early."
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