With the ink still drying on his new two-year contract, St Kilda key forward Tim Membrey is determined to build on a breakout 2016, starting by putting another strong pre-season in the bank this summer.
The 22-year-old spearhead emerged as one of the best young forwards in the competition this year, finishing the season with 44 goals from 17 games – an average of 2.6 per game, ranked No. 7 in the AFL – after not playing senior football until Round 6 due to a shoulder reconstruction.
Despite having a year still to run on his previous deal, Membrey was keen to extend his tenure with the Saints swiftly, extinguishing any prospect of outside speculation mounting.
“It is really exciting the club has got faith in me. I guess now I need to back that up by putting in as much work as I can,’’ Membrey told the Sunday Herald Sun from New Zealand.
“If anything it has spurred me on even more to back it up with an even better season. I have come back in good shape and if I can, I want to have a better year.
“After the season the talks started and I was pretty keen to get something done early in the pre-season and put it to bed so I was purely focused on footy and what is to come.”
After crossing from Sydney to St Kilda as a delisted free agent at the end of 2014, Membrey managed 12 games and nine goals in his first season at Linen House Centre.
Post-season shoulder surgery prevented the Gippsland Power product from full training during the majority of last summer, but it was a blessing in disguise.
Being forced away from the main group, Membrey built an engine that allowed him to not only excel at AFL level, but also provided him with an armour of confidence.
“I didn’t join the main group until January but when I came back into the team I had been playing good footy in the reserves,’’ Membrey said.
“I had a lot of confidence knowing I should be out there and I remember after that game I spoke to forwards coach Aaron Hamill and I just felt so calm.
“Whenever I had the ball I was relaxed and making good decisions and that was my focus through the year — not to kick goals every game but back myself to run games out and compete at the highest level.”
While it was Membrey’s turn to flourish in 2016 and Josh Bruce’s a year earlier, 2014 No. 1 pick Paddy McCartin hasn’t been provided with a good run at it yet by the football gods.
The highly rated key forward showed glimpses of his prodigious talent this year, but three concussions and a broken collarbone didn’t allow him to build any continuity in his game.
Membrey says the club doesn’t want McCartin to alter his fearless attack on the contest, he just hopes his attacking partner can string a whole season together next year.
“It was frustrating for him when you can see how much potential he has and you just want him to string five games or a season together,’’ he said.
“But the club doesn’t want him to change the way he goes about it. He is one of those big forwards who busts packs. He just has to get his head away from the contest.”
