Girgarre AFL draftee Brayden George has had a ringside seat to North Melbourne’s tumultuous 2023 season that hit a low point earlier this month with the “temporary” departure of coach Alistair Clarkson.
Since arriving at the club in December last year he has seen the celebrated appointment of four-time AFL premiership coach at his new club, which had only a couple of months earlier traded its number one draft pick of 2021 — Jason Horne Francis — to Port Adelaide.
The Kangaroos has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, having had five coaches in the past four seasons.
In six months at the club George has witnessed the highly scrutinised off-field criticism of teammate Taryn Thomas, watched from the sidelines as club president Dr Sonja Hood announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and, more recently, seen Clarkson take a leave of absence because of deteriorating mental health.
Taken by the Kangaroos with their third selection of the 2022 draft (at pick number 26), the teenager has watched all of this happen from the sidelines as he continues to recover from an October knee operation after tearing his ACL five minutes into the Murray Bushrangers Coates Talent League final last year.
Ironivally, on that day he was playing against soon-to-be teammate Harry Sheezel and a Sandringham Dragons team that also included Brisbane Lions sensation Will Ashcroft.
North Melbourne chose George in the draft having already secured Sheezel and recent AFL debutante George Wadlaw with picks number three and four of the draft.
George has been the constant with the North Melbourne rehab group since December last year and will undergo a “halfway” assessment in Sydney this week to receive a more accurate diagnosis of a comeback date.
It is seven months since his injury, the post-surgery prognosis for his injury to keep him sidelines for 12 to 14 months.
He started the pre-season as the only member of the rehabilitation group and for the past month has been completing three running sessions a week as a return to football looms for the strong-marking forward.
“I spend Monday, Thursday and Saturday running, two sessions of nine to 10 kilometres and a smaller Saturday, which is a bit more more skills focused and has a change of direction and agility,” George said.
After spending five weeks alone in rehab he has had some company in recent times, including star mid-fielder Luke Davies-Uniacke and ruckman Tristain Cherry.
He is expecting good news from the Sydney trip to complete testing with a knee specialist.
“They will be using force plates to see what goes is going the through leg and if I can tick the boxes in Sydney I will be able to go to the next stage,” he said.
George has been completing weekly boxing sessions and on his days off is preparing to start a clothing design course.
He has been inspired by the artistic flare of big-marking forward Nick Larkey and plans to study fashion with an eye to the future.
George is living with North Melbourne strength and conditioning coach James Wiseman, originally from South Australia, and VFL captain Jack Watkins.
He spent much of the pre-season in the company of Wiseman and put on four or five kilograms during the pre-season strength phase, but since he started running had dropped the weight.
He was on the sidelines for the extraordinary start for the Kangaroos, which came in the form of a five-point round-one win against West Coast and a one-point round-two win against Fremantle.
“Watching isn’t the best, but after the first round I thought we were onto something, then I felt as though something special was bulding after the second-round win,” he said.
Since then the Kangaroos have lost eight straight, including the devastating three-point loss to Sydney when an interchange error cost it a goal-square free kick and saw the Swans steal the match in the dying seconds.
George said he had only travelled with the team to one interstate club, when the Kangaroos lost by 43 points.
He attends all the Melbourne games and was in a box with four or five teammates for the Sydney game.
“With three minutes to go we all decided to go down to the ground and cheer the boys off after the win,” he said.
“We were right next to the interchange bench, when the free kick was paid and we ended up losing.”
George said the club handled it really well, the individual responsible for making the interchange error speaking in front of the group after the team while standing with captains Luke McDonald and Jye Simpkin.
“It was treated like any on-field mistake and everyone has moved on,” he said.
George said he spent some time with Clarkson, who he described “as a great bloke to be around” and had only had brief conversations with interim coach Brett Ratten.
As for his co-draftees from 2022, Wardlaw and Sheezel, he said he held nothing but admiration for their achievements.
“It is kind of special what Sheez has been able to do, with such a dominant first half of the season,” George said.
“I can guarantee one thing, it will continue.”
The former St Augustine’s College student spent a week at home when he was given some time away from the rehab program earlier this year.
“Mum (Sue) organised the cousins to come over and I caught up with some mates,” he said.
As for that all-important comeback date, he said he had accepted it was more likely he would not be playing this year.
“I think I will be ready, but it is just not worth the risk,” he said.
A graduate of Alex Rance’s football-based tertiary program, The Acamedy, George has been closely following the fortunes of another student of the Wangaratta campus, Darcy Wilson.
Wilson has kicked two bags of three goals in the Coates Talent League this season with the Murray Bushrangers and is being hailed as an AFL draft prospect for November.