RICHMOND young gun Jack Graham has resumed contact training after undergoing a left shoulder reconstruction and is aiming to play in the team's intraclub match on Saturday.
The big-bodied midfielder missed four weeks after injuring his shoulder in a tackle during round 16 against Adelaide, but delayed surgery until the end of the season.
However, Graham said it's too early to tell if he will be fit for Richmond's first JLT Community Series match against Melbourne on March 3 in Shepparton.
"My shoulder is coming along nicely, I did my first bit of contact skills on Thursday," Graham told AFL.com.au.
"It went well, got through, no pain or anything. We're on track, got an intraclub coming up on Saturday and I might be a chance to play three quarters or a half of that, so it's coming along nicely."
Graham's first year in the AFL system, 2017, was extraordinary by most people's standards. He missed the first 14 weeks with a broken ankle and made his debut in round 22.
He played five consecutive games and became a premiership player who kicked three goals in a Grand Final and tagged his hero Rory Sloane.
His second season was completely different.
"It's pretty crazy how it all happened in my first year. It's still pretty surreal and it hasn't really sunk in," Graham said.
"Last year, I really got to experience what being an AFL footballer is about with a few injuries here and there and the shoulder. I was dropped (in round 12) then back in the side, so I learned a lot from my second year, which is good."
The 20-year-old (Graham turns 21 later this month) doesn't see his role being too different in the coming season.
"I'll be sticking in the midfield, maybe spend a little bit of time forward," he said.
"Everything changes a little bit in pre-season and then when games start it goes back to normal, so I'd say I'll be staying in the midfield."
Graham nominated the kick-in rule (bringing the player on the mark back to 10m and kickers no longer having to kick to themselves before running out of the square) as the one to have the most effect in 2019.
Tiger Jayden Short, who has a noted long kick, is one in line to benefit from it.
"We've tested it a few times and it seems to clear the ball a long way if you've got a big kicker, so that's going to be interesting to see how that goes and hopefully it opens up the game a bit," Graham said.
"The ball seems to go a lot further when [Short] kicks it compared to anyone else, so that'll be interesting. Hopefully it's a good thing for us. I know some other teams have some big kickers as well, which isn't as good because we have to chase it."
Graham nominated Short, among other teammates, as having impressed on the track this pre-season.
"Jayden Short has stepped up another gear with his fitness, Brandon Ellis as well," he said.
"Jake Aarts, who we drafted through the VFL program (as a rookie), is looking really fit and fitting in nicely.
"The same goes for the young kid Jackie Ross, he's in the midfield, and he's training really well. He's got a big body already, he's going to be exciting to watch this year and see where he goes with his footy."
The drafting of Ross takes the number of players named Jack on the list to four (joining Graham, Higgins and Riewoldt), three behind competition leaders St Kilda, which has seven.
"We've got a few, so it's always a bit tricky in the meetings whenever they say 'Jack', but Riewoldt, he's always the one to claim it. And we're just the other Jacks.
"He (Riewoldt) always says he's the senior one," he said with a laugh.
