Hampson, who last week resumed with the Bullants after an eight-week lay-off with a knee injury, is mounting a late charge.
Does he envisage breaking back into the Carlton seniors as early as the Round 24 St Kilda contest? “It will be hard, with Robbie (Warnock) and Kreuze (Matthew Kreuzer) both playing all right,” Hampson conceded, “but is there room in the team for three big men? I’d like to think so, although I don’t know what the big boys upstairs think.
“With the short time frame before the finals start they might be a bit worried about changing the team, but I guess if I’m playing good footy they can’t avoid that. And if ‘Waitey’ (Jarrad Waite) is not right then it may change things because we’ve been a bit short in the forward line. So if I can continue with some good forward work then maybe I can finish off the season up front.”
Hampson said he incurred what was “a typical ruckman’s injury” in rupturing the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the Round 13 match with Sydney at Etihad Stadium. It happened after he knocked knees with Sydney’s Mark Seaby at a centre bounce, at a time when “Hammer” had strung together a sequence of solid performances - his best in five seasons with Carlton.
“I knew straight away that I’d done it,” Hampson said of the physical damage. “I knew how it happened and what the injury was too. It wasn’t dissimilar to the one suffered by Levi Casboult.
“I was feeling pretty confident at the time too because everything was going right. My body was right, my head was right and I was playing the best footy in my time at the club. Getting hurt was all pretty unfortunate, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Against Port Melbourne at TEAC Oval last weekend, Hampson booted three goals in a half as the visitors lowered their colours to the competition leaders. Come Saturday, he’ll start forward, take some ruck duties around the ground, and hopefully complete 75 per cent of game time against the Scorpions at Casey Fields.
“If I have a good game in that one, and contribute up forward, then I’d like to think that they (the senior selectors) will have a look at me,” Hampson said in typical upbeat fashion. “But we’ll see how we go.”
Of further good news for Hampson and Carlton is that the big bloke from Mt Gravatt is close to finalizing terms of a new three-year contract binding him to the Blues.
Like so many of his Carlton contemporaries, there is only upside for Hampson. As he said: “I’m 23 years old and I’ve got my best football in front of me . . . big boys do take a bit longer and I know I’m only five years into my career”.
Who would you have as our starting 6 forwards? Leave your comment below.
