The athletic Thompson impressed early against the Hawks in his return from ankle injury, relishing in the challenge of going head-to-head with arguably the competition’s best power forward.
The super-strong key-position player physically out-battled “Buddy” throughout the night, with Thompson showing early signs he’s ready to embark on a successful AFL career and add to his 13-game tally.
GC SUNS senior coach Guy McKenna was quick to credit the Southport Sharks junior in his post-media press conference, telling reporters he believed the Gold Coaster was on track to permanently hold down the centre half-back position with experienced utility Nathan Bock still recovering from long-term injury.
Experienced defender Campbell Brown said the player’s confidence in Thompson had sky-rocketed after his spirited performance against what Brown believes is the “toughest match-up in the AFL”.
“Rory (Thompson) did an outstanding job… he’s had an enormous pre-season and he’s certainly one of the strongest blokes on the list,” said Brown.
“He’s had a couple of injury-interrupted season so we haven’t seen the best of him yet, but if he gets his body right he’ll be very hard to stop down in the backline.”
Thompson told goldcoastfc.com.au that the opportunity to go one-on-one with Franklin had left him excited in the week leading up to the SUNS NAB Cup opener against the Hawks.
“As a young developing defender you want to compete against the best in the competition, so I’ve always tried to step up more in the games against guys like Travis Cloke, Matthew Pavlich and Nick Reiwoldt,” said Thompson.
“You learn what they do to create space, how they do it, and what works against them… it really is a great learning experience.”
Despite such positive words of encouragement from both the SUNS playing group and the coaching staff, Thompson is still looking to build on his strong pre-season campaign and use the NAB Cup tournament as his foundation towards playing all 22 home-and-away games and hopefully tasting Final’s football.
“For the first time (since arriving at the SUNS), I’ve been able to put together a strong pre-season and feel as though I have advanced further under Stephen Schwerdt and his High Performance Team,” Thompson said.
“The coaching staff were really impressed with my efforts in the last intra-club match a few weeks ago, and to have come out with such a strong performance against Buddy (Franklin) on the weekend has certainly boasting my confidence leading into our next three NAB Cup games.”
With the underrated defender likely to face another star forward in Drew Petrie this weekend when the SUNS travel north for their Round 2 NAB Cup match against North Melbourne in Townsville, Thompson was confident his attack on the football and enhanced ability to make decisions under pressure would assist the promising youngster.
“Drew (Petrie) is definitely another talented tall forward that can create headaches for opposing defenders… but I’m confident that my performance against Buddy will have been great preparation for the Kangaroo’s star.”
Photos from Round 1 of NAB Cup triangular series matches between the Gold Coast SUNS, Hawthorn and Brisbane Lions now available for viewing here.
