He may have just produced the best season of his career, establishing himself as one of the best emerging ruckmen in the game, but Tom Hickey is determined to not let it be an outlier.
The 25-year-old ruckman played all but two games in 2016, where he stamped himself as one of the most improved players at Linen House Centre and finished a career-high 8th in the Trevor Barker Award.
With three other fully fit ruckmen – all who have senior experience – on St Kilda’s list, Hickey knows he can’t afford to rest on his laurels and must keep improving to stay ahead of the chasing pack.
“It probably makes me want to work a bit harder because I don’t want to just fall into the abyss and not perform this year,” Hickey told saints.com.au on Monday afternoon.
“I’ve still been trying to do a lot of extras and we’ve got three really good ruckman on the list as well. I’m just trying to stay ahead of them. It gets pretty heated every training session but it’s been pretty good.”
Hickey believes having Jason Holmes, Lewis Pierce and Billy Longer nipping at his heels is an advantage that some other clubs don’t possess, with the competition for a berth in Alan Richardson’s side dragging the Saints' ruckmen along.
“I think a lot of clubs don’t really have four ruckmen that could all play any given week, so every training session we all have our strengths and weaknesses so we all get to work on that,” Hickey said.
“We are all vying for that Round 1 spot which is good, it’s healthy to have competition, we train pretty hard against each other but at the same time we’re all pretty good mates so it’s been a really positive pre-season for us.”
The injection of former Western Bulldogs midfielder, Koby Stevens, and ex-Giants onballer, Jack Steele, has not only boosted the talent and depth in the Saints’ engine room, but also increased the competition for midfield spots.
Following career-best seasons from Jack Newnes and Seb Ross, Hickey concedes the battle for a midfield berth will lead to some genuinely stiff players at Sandringham, which is only a good thing for St Kilda.
“I think this year’s going to be the first time for a long time there’s going to be genuine competition for the midfield spots, where there’s going to be unlucky players every week,” he said.
“(The arrival of) guys like ‘Kobes’ and ‘Steeley’, that have come in they can play with the best of them, so it will be really good for competition.”
