Nankervis, who arrived at the club from North Launceston via pick 35 in the last year’s National Draft, had the opportunity to play alongside Kurt Tippett in last Saturday’s NEAFL clash against Gold Coast, in what was Tippett’s first match since last year’s finals series.
While Tippett only played a half of football, the 19-year-old said the opportunity to play with the Swans’ number eight was priceless.
“It was unreal to run out with Kurt,” Nankervis told sydneyswans.com.au.
“Obviously he’s a really good player, but he’s also a really good on-field leader.
“He worked hard to communicate well with the other forwards and just watching how he moves and stuff like that made it really good to play alongside him.
“Along with that, he’s also really selfless with the way he sets up and he puts on a lot of blocks up forward.”
While Tippett attracted a lot of attention in his first hit-out for the year, Nankervis finished the match as the Swans standout performer.
The young ruckman, who won 26 hit outs for the match, also made an impact in the forward line where he booted four goals and took 10 marks.
Following what was his best performance since arriving at the club, Nankervis paid tribute to Tippett who has had a big influence on the improvement in his game over the last month.
“I’ve been working with Kurt over the last two or three weeks just trying to learn as much off him as I can,” he said.
“Working with him, you can just see how strong and imposing he is and he works really hard on that area of his game.
“The under-18 competition is a pretty good standard but coming into the NAB Challenge and playing against AFL teams in the NEAFL, it definitely took me some time to adjust to the tempo.
“It’s just been great to learn off him and I do think my form is building, but I still have a lot to work on, but I’m feeling a lot better about myself now.”
While Nankervis showed plenty of promise up forward last weekend, the young Tasmanian will likely spend more time in the ruck over the next month, with rookie ruckman Sam Naismith set to miss three to five weeks with a medial ligament injury.
The George Town teenager said he looked forward to the challenge of having more ruck responsibility in the coming weeks.
“It’s disappointing for Sam, who had a really good pre-season and has been playing some pretty good footy,” he said.
“The coaches told me that I’d be spending a lot more time in the ruck, which I don’t mind.
“I grew up playing as a forward, so it’s somewhere I’ve played a lot of footy, but I’m also happy spending more time in the ruck.
“I’m just focused on playing consistent footy and really playing my role for the team.”
The Swans reserves will travel north tomorrow ahead of Friday’s ANZAC Day clash with the Brisbane Lions reserves in Mackay.
Nankervis said the team was excited about the chance to play on such an important day.
“It’s a long way to go up to Mackay, but it should be a really good match,” he said.
“It really is a great privilege for us to be able to play on ANZAC Day and the team is really looking forward to it.
“We played the Lions a couple of weeks ago and they are a really good team and I reckon it’s going to be a really good game.”
