After what he described as a long and hot pre-season, SUNS veteran Michael Rischitelli is itching to pull on the boots and get back on the field after only managing four games last season.
Pending selection, Rischitelli will travel up to Townsville on Thursday for the JLT Community Series match against Geelong over the weekend.
“It’s obviously going to be a pretty tough game, their ball in hand (work) is really, really good,” Rischitelli said
“They’re a very contested side so we’ll just have to wait and see.
“More importantly we’ve just got to worry about what we’ve been working on for the pre-season and see how we go.”
As part of their Townsville itinerary, the SUNS will also commence the second leg of their 2018 Community Camp, visiting schools and running clinics across the region.
“We always get really good crowds there all the time so we love going up there and doing our community and helping out,” Rischitelli said.
Coming off a tough 2017 where he fought back from a ruptured ACL suffered the previous season, Rischitelli said new coach Stuart Dew had a big bearing on his decision to play on this season.
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"I had a pretty big discussion about it and I was fortunate to get another year and I want to make the most of it.
"Getting Stuey in here, it's that fresh face and new ideas, that was the main point.
"If I could just get over the first few months of a gruelling pre-season, I know if you can get past that, you set yourself up for a good year."
Rischitelli has 215 games behind him, mostly in the midfield, but is set for a change of role, possibly as soon as Sunday's game against the Cats.
Dew has trialled the hard-nut at half-back in the past few weeks, including Friday's intra-club hit-out in the wet at Carrara.
"The last eight weeks for me personally has gone really, really well, getting through and slowly improving with running and everything else.
"Personally, I feel like I'm in a good position to have a good year."
