Tigers welcome home promising young ruckman for next season

The young ruckman returns to the Tigers after one year away in Melbourne and he was looking forward to returning to his junior club.

"Yeah it'll be fun," Cook said.

"I'm keen to come back."

Cook played 10 senior games for the Tigers in 2022 and spent the past season with Glen Eira in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA).

Despite not playing as many games as he would've liked, Cook said it was a good experience playing footy in Melbourne.

"It was fun and I learnt a lot from the team I was with," he said.

"I didn't play as many games as I would've liked due to sickness and injury, but I still got to develop like I wanted to.

"They were very welcoming and it was quite handy to have so many blokes from Wagga there.

"I didn't feel too alone or alienated and it made me feel like I was at Tigers back home."

Cook showed plenty of promise in his first year of senior footy at the Tigers in 2022 and he was excited to tackle a full campaign in the top grade next season.

"Yeah I'm keen to play a full season of footy for Wagga Tigers, it will be great," he said.

"I think I played the third or fourth game in first grade in 2022 so it will be good to start the season with them and move from there."

Cook felt that he potentially hadn't gotten any better during his time away from the Tigers but believed that he now had more confidence in his abilities and playing in the sometimes difficult ruck position.

"I don't know about better, but I feel a bit more comfortable in my skills now," he said.

"When I started playing first grade for Wagga Tigers I had only been rucking the year beforehand so I was still figuring out how to be a ruckman for a team.

"But after a few years I'm now figuring it out more and more and I'm a little more confident.

"I wouldn't say I'm any better or worse, I'm just more confident in my skills."

Tigers coach Murray Stephenson was delighted to have Cook back at the club for next season.

"Particularly towards the end of the 2022 season he really started to come on and find his feet at the level," Stephenson said.

"He left a pretty big hole in the team that year he was gone and we are really excited to have him back because he's a good young man and he's got a lot of talent and upside with his footy.

"He's got a lot of friends at the football club and he's a good young man to have, he'll be a real asset to the playing group."

"It's pretty well known that ruckman are pretty hard to find in this area.

"To have Henry there who is a junior, hopefully we see him play a lot of footy for a lot of years at the club."