Last season loomed as crunch time for the Canadian if he was to continue living his AFL dream. 

Restricted to just two games in 2011, largely due to injury, he needed to push for senior selection in the final year of his contract. 

He responded by playing 18 consecutive games from round eight, including a key role on Grand Final day. 

Having answered his critics, Pyke earned a new two-year deal and has plenty of life left in his AFL journey.

Draft history: 2009 Rookie Draft selection (Sydney) No. 57; 2010 NAB AFL Draft rookie elevation (Sydney) selection No. 101.

2013 Coaches Call

2012 was a good year for Pykey. It was a slow start to the year and I don’t think he broke into the team until about round eight and then has a knack of finding a way to get it done and contributing and staying in the team. He really did become a valuable member of the team, certainly in the last few games and he really did improve as the year went on.

Pre-season has been really good. He is one of the most professional blokes on the list and he gets the most out of every training session which has helped him improve and has helped him play senior footy.

We hope in 2013 that he continues to improve. He’s another one who has done that for his whole career and has taken steps forward every year, which has led him to where he is now. He certainly took a lot more contested marks last year, so we hope that area of his game continues. He has also rucked really well and is pretty agile around the ground, so we hope to see more of that.