Muscle sure to be a hit

THE AFL’s record-breaking hitout weapon could be set to improve further courtesy of a bulked-up frame.

Gold Coast Suns ruckman Jarrod Witts has put on 5kg of muscle to his upper body in a bid to become even stronger in the contest.

Witts broke the record for the most hit-outs in a homeand-away season in 2019 with 1008 and the Gold Coast cocaptain believes he can get his hands on the ball even more.

“I have been able to put on a little bit of weight, getting stronger in my upper body,” Witts said.

“I’d like to see it correlate into the game. The aim was to try to be a bit stronger around the contest and stoppages to give the midfielders as much first-use as possible.”

Gold Coast’s Round 1 game against Port Adelaide today will be Witts’ first of the season after a foot injury kept him out of the Marsh Community Series.

The 27-year-old broke his foot at the start of the year and the goal of the club was to get him fit for the season-opener.

The 209cm ruckman said he wasn’t worried a lack of match fitness would hinder him today.

“Every Round 1 game is intense, everyone is blowing,” Witts said.

“I’ll probably just be blowing a bit more. The last couple of years I haven’t been able to train through January and it’s been sweet so I take some confidence from that.”

Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew is confident his new-look team hasn’t lost any of the momentum from their impressive pre-season.

“We’ve been able to keep that momentum going ... they were unanimous in wanting to play and for all the right reasons,” he said.

“That’s been the main thing. We’ve had good competition for spots in selection and I think that’s added to that energy around training and quality and that.”

Port are also on the up and have selected forward Mitch Georgiades for his AFL debut after an impressive pre-season.

Ex-Sun Charlie Dixon won’t play due to an adductor strain but Dew has no doubt the Power will be strong rivals for his team, who are on an 18game losing streak stretching back to Round 5 last year.