THE Hawkesbury Saints were paid a visit by Greater Western Sydney Giants players Zach Sproule and Harry Perryman on February 22, and spent time running drills with the Saints youngsters at training.
The club had most of its juniors training, and the Giants players helped the coaches with the drills, and also had a question and answer segment with the juniors.
Sproule, an 18-year-old forward, said he loved coming out to clubs across western Sydney and getting among the young players.
“I played for the Albury Tigers throughout my whole junior league career,” he said.
“In primary school we had a few [AFL] clubs come to our schools but nothing like this.
“I enjoy coming out here and getting around the young kids, I wish when I was young we had AFL players coming out to run drills with me.”
Sproule, who as far as age goes is not far removed from some of the Hawkesbury Saints players, said since joining the Giants through their academy team, he had been impressed with their community engagement.
“The Giants are really good with the community kids,” he said.
“We want to spread the word about the Giants culture and we can do it through days like this.
“It is pleasing to see most of the boys are Giants fans here.”
Sproule said he grew up a St Kilda fan after watching Nick Riewoldt play.
He said Sydney was nothing like Albury, but liked living here.
“The worst thing about Sydney is the traffic, it is a nightmare,” he said.
“But I have really enjoyed the move, it has been really easy. The family has been up a lot to support me which has been nice.
“The club looks after us and has made the transition pretty easy. I have fit into the club really well, all the blokes are really nice.”
As for himself, Sproule is yet to crack first grade, but that is the biggest goal the young forward has.
“I just want to play good football and come up into the AFL side during the year,” he said.
“It has been a tough pre-season and we are coming up to the real games now so it is becoming very hard.
“I haven't had any injuries which has been nice, I have had a really enjoyable pre-season
“I want to improve my contested ball and contested marking.
“I don't take them as well as I should, so I have been working really closely with the coaches to improve on that.”
