North Melbourne footballer Tarryn Thomas has been welcomed back to the club as the Kangaroos try to provide structure to help him turn his career around.
Thomas will train with the North Melbourne VFL team on Tuesday night but will not be selected for a VFL game until he has made “adequate progress” towards meeting the club’s expectations, the Kangaroos said in a statement.
The 23-year-old was fined $5000 by the Kangaroos for his social media post last week showing footage of him driving dangerously down a highway with his feet on the dash, with a further $5000 to be donated to a road safety charity.
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North Melbourne chief executive Jennifer Watt said the club will support Thomas on the condition that his behaviour improves.
He will face court later this year on a single charge of threatening to distribute an intimate image, while he will also appear before a court on an unrelated matter of driving with a suspended licence.
“Based on expert advice, supported by our own observations, and after building a new plan that will see him working and training with our VFL program, we’ll provide Tarryn with the structure he needs to give him every opportunity to demonstrate the required standards of behaviour,” Watt said.
“Tarryn has now been away from the club for a total of eight weeks across this year, and he has engaged in a series of education and training programs during that time.
“We have made it clear to Tarryn that the future of his playing career at North Melbourne is in his hands.”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said last week that he thought the structure offered by the football club would help Thomas maintain focus on personal improvement.
“I think the best environment for him is to be within the routine and structure of the football club,” Clarkson said.
“Showcase your talents on the football field, not necessarily in a nightclub or in a car or elsewhere and on social media – we’re interested in where his greatest expertise is, is what he can do on that patch of grass out there with the goalposts.
“I reckon that needs to be the dangling carrot for him, about how productive his life could look if he gets the stability of footy back in his life again.”
