Border Mail |
JASON Gram will move to Albury in a bid to help his transition into Ovens and Murray football.
The boom North Albury recruit, who will miss at least three weeks with yet another hamstring strain, has failed to set the competition alight as most pundits expected he would.
Hoppers’ coach Jason Akermanis, who recently relocated to the Border, said the three-hour commute from Melbourne had played its part in Gram’s sluggish and injury-plagued start to the year.
Gram, who has been staying on the Border at weekends, will move to the area full-time in the coming weeks.
And Akermanis expects that to make a huge difference.
“I think you’ll find as the season goes on there will be some big improvements from him,” Akermanis said.
“Until now he probably hadn’t quite realised that you can’t be a part-time footballer in this league, and I mean that commute wise.
“I found that out myself.
“It just doesn’t work.
“Once he’s up here training and living full-time, I think we’ll see some improvements.
“He’s out for three weeks, that’s a no-brainer, and now he needs to get it right.”
Akermanis said the club wouldn’t stop Gram travelling to the US during the interleague break.
But the Hoppers have received some good news on the injury front, with livewire forward Kane Godde cleared of any serious ankle damage.
Godde was carried from the ground by trainers in the dying stages of Sunday’s eight-point loss to Wangaratta Rovers and looked certain to miss weeks.
Jethro Calma-Holt also picked up an ankle niggle but will be right to go against Corowa-Rutherglen on Saturday.
“Structurally, they’re both fine,” Akermanis said.
“Being a shorter week, we’ll make a decision on Kane later this week.
“He’ll need to do the right things on Thursday.
“Jethro was just a bit sore.”
Akermanis said silky-skilled defender Kade Brown would play seniors this week after a successful return from a knee injury in the reserves.
