Worried North looks for positives

NORTH Geelong will enter its fifth straight finals series as a severe underdog this weekend against Thomson, just eight days after a 22-point defeat against the Tigers.

The Magpies will do so without ball-winner James Chandler, who sustained a knee injury in the second-last round of the home-and-away season.

But there are still positive signs at the Keith Barclay Oval in the lead-up to the elimination final.

Jamie Pitman returns to St Albans Reserve, a place he got to know after a year at St Albans, while Luke Parker continues to be a key with each of his premiership campaigns.

But out of the 50 players to represent North Geelong at senior level this season, few have shown the workrate of 24-year-old Dylan Fisher around the stoppages.

This week, senior assistant coach Jeff Czajkowski admitted the junior graduate’s key to success had been successful eye surgery over the pre-season.

“He plays a handful of senior games each year before getting injured on each occasion and it came to a point where the players were forecasting his next injury each time he was selected,” Czajkowski said.

“Little did many realise he was playing his footy partially blinded, while off the field he was required to wear glasses 100 per cent of the time.”

Fisher managed just eight senior games from 2012-16 while playing in his club’s successful reserves side.

In 2015, he finished runnerup to Winchelsea midfielder Jackson Smith in the reserves best-and-fairest before establishing himself as a regular senior ball winner this winter.

“Since the eye surgery over summer, his footy has gone on in leaps and bounds and I would think he’s going to poll really well in our best-andfairest,” Czajkowski said.

“He still plays partially blind, nevertheless he’s a credit to himself.”