{"id":67950,"date":"2020-06-01T16:15:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T06:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=67950"},"modified":"2020-06-01T16:15:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T06:15:10","slug":"qa-sam-tucker-oakleigh-chargers-vic-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2020\/06\/01\/qa-sam-tucker-oakleigh-chargers-vic-metro\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Sam Tucker (Oakleigh Chargers\/Vic Metro)"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last few weeks, we head back to the pre-season where we sat down with a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central<\/em>‘s Michael Alvaro<\/em><\/strong> chatted with Oakleigh Chargers’ Sam Tucker<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at the NAB League Fitness Testing Day hosted by Rookie Me.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 196cm swingman started his 2019 NAB League campaign playing up forward, but looked comfortable down back too across his six outings as a bottom-ager. Tucker’s experience as an Under 16 Vic Metro representative and trialist last year helped him earn a spot in the 2020 Academy Hub, with eyes on cracking into the Metro Under 18 squad.<\/p>\n

Tucker was also looking forward to playing a full season with the Chargers, free from school football commitments as a top-ager, but it remains to be seen whether the competition will go ahead. With clean hands, good skills for his size, and a decent leap, Tucker is a versatile key position option for each side he runs out for.<\/p>\n

>> CATCH UP ON OUR FEATURES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q&A:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

MA: Sam, how’s the day been for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ST: “Not bad, it’s pretty good to just get the tests done now and then get into footy next.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How have you fared in the tests, were you just looking to improve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We test as a club before Christmas so coming in I was trying to focus on my speed and my vertical and trying to improve them.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I take it has been a long preseason?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yes, it started back in what, November? It’s good to come to the end, have no more running and get into games.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Going back to last year, you would’ve played with some high-end talent. How did that help you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Of course. Both Rowelly (Matt Rowell)<\/strong> and Ando (Noah Anderson)<\/strong> were just awesome players, top class. So just to be able to learn off them all year was awesome.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who are some of the players you’re looking forward to playing alongside this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Obviously Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan)<\/strong><\/a>, Finlay Macrae<\/strong><\/a>, Reef (McInnes)<\/strong><\/a>. All those guys are great players so it’ll be really good, a good privilege.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Being around the Metro Hub must help your development too, how’s that been?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It’s been a really good experience. We’ve had two camps, and just the resources we (have) available to us are really good.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does that experience help you set up some goals heading into your top-age year, and what are some of the things you’re looking to tick off?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Definitely. They’re two prime example that show you what happens when you do all the work. I just try and take tips off their training habits and how they prepare.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you looking to lock down a certain role or continue to play up either end?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think I’ll play everywhere but hopefully along as a (centre) half-back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last few weeks, we head back to the pre-season where we sat down with a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central‘s Michael Alvaro chatted with Oakleigh Chargers’ Sam Tucker\u00a0at the NAB League Fitness Testing Day hosted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":55340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,7949,8,11595],"tags":[11832,12111,2964,7951,48,11583,11827,8498,5844,4854,1880,11547,9181],"class_list":["post-67950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league","category-news","category-oakleigh-chargers","tag-2020-vic-metro","tag-afl-academy-hub","tag-feature","tag-nab-league","tag-oakleigh-chargers","tag-qa","tag-qna","tag-sam-tucker","tag-samuel-tucker","tag-under-18-national-championships","tag-vic-metro","tag-vic-metro-hub","tag-vic-metro-under-18"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}