“HE’S A real professional.”

Brodie Kemp is giving himself every chance to achieve a successful career in Navy Blue.

That’s the opinion of Director of High Performance Andrew Russell, who has been working closely with Kemp ever since he was drafted to the Club last November.

Coming in on the back of an ACL injury in his draft year, Kemp has received rave reviews from coaches, officials and teammates about the application to his training.

Russell said the Club and Kemp was focused on doing everything required for his long-term ambitions.

“He’s a real professional,” Russell said.

“It’s funny, these guys can get injured in their first year and it can be a blessing for them in the medium-to-long-term.

“They’re forced to get a great understanding of themselves, their body, their mind, how they train, how hard they can push themselves.

“They can get stronger in areas that they may not when they get into the system, because we get them out there playing as quickly as we can.”

From the outset, Russell has said the approach with Kemp has always been about the long game.

While that hasn’t changed, he’s excited to see what the versatile youngster can contribute when he eventually pulls on the Navy Blue jumper.

“We probably won’t see him this year but he’s a little bit similar to ‘Doc’: he’ll be having two pre-seasons in a row,” he said.

“He’s going really well. He’s doing some ball work with the boys.”

Russell also said that Matthew Kreuzer was making significant ground in his return from the foot injury sustained in Round 1.

While Kreuzer is some weeks away, Russell said the big man was “a realistic option for us this year down the track”.

“He’s back running on the Alter-G machine. It’s a de-loaded machine, he’s running at 75 per cent body weight,” he said.

“It’s a really good progression back to running. The bone is healing really well.

“He’ll probably be doing that for another week or two and then we’ll get him out there running. He’s a good 8-10 weeks away from playing.”