Talented Coolamon footballer Liam Delahunty has moved to Melbourne in a bid to enhance his chances at an AFL career.
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Delahunty has joined NAB League club Northern Knights and hopes to spend his year split between there, the national championships and North Melbourne's VFL team.
Delahunty was overlooked in last year's AFL Draft and immediately locked in his 'Plan B'.
"It was a big call but I had this in the works for a while," Delahunty said.
"After nationals, I had a Plan B for after the draft and I made the call straight away."
Delahunty made the move to Melbourne at the end of January.
His 2020 campaign faces a delayed start however after undergoing a MPFL reconstruction on his knee at the end of last season.
The 19-year-old only returned to running this week and has conceded he will make a late start to the year.
"I've been in rehab and only started running on Monday. That was my first session back," he said.
"I did it in the last game of last year and didn't test at the (AFL) Combine.
"I'm probably aiming to get back by round four. It will be a good month of conditioning."
The Knights, like other NAB League under 18 clubs, are allowed to pick a certain amount of 19-year-olds to play throughout the year.
It is a similar situation at the under 18 national championships, where Delahunty hopes to again feature for the Allies.
"I'll predominantly play at the Knights in the NAB League and try to get to nationals again," he said.
"Then at the back end of the year I might play a few VFL games for North Melbourne. They will probably rotate it between the 19-year-olds."
Delahunty's goal is to be picked up by an AFL club.
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