Deledio soaks up victory
12:14:09 PM Mon 31 October, 2005
Scott Spits
Sportal for afl.com.au
It's been a heady year for Brett Deledio, but the No.1 draft selection capped off a memorable debut season in the AFL as a valuable member of Australia's successful International Rules squad.
The 18-year-old played all 22 matches for Richmond 2005 and such was the composure he showed during his first season at the elite level, first-year Australian coach Kevin Sheedy picked Deledio in his new-look national squad for the hybrid game.
Now that Deledio has firmly established himself as a player of the future and represented his country against Ireland, the NAB Rising Star winner has earnt the chance to relax for a while before pre-season training gets underway for the Tigers.
The classy midfielder will take a week off and return to his home town of Kyabram in country Victoria before starting training on 7 November.
So, Brett, are you looking forward to the chance to put your feet up?
"Yeah, I can't wait. I've got a week off now so I might head back up home and just relax for a week," he said after Australia's 21-point victory over Ireland in the second Test at Telstra Dome last Friday night, giving the home team an aggregate victory of 57 points - the biggest series victory in the history of the competition.
"The family came down. Hopefully they enjoyed watching the game."
The chance to play for Australia came after Richmond football manager Paul Armstrong came to Deledio during the season and said Australian selectors were interested.
"I was never going to refuse the offer so I'm very proud to represent my country."
Deledio was delighted to play in front of a partisan crowd at Telstra Dome as Australia remarkably recorded its first ever victory in Melbourne.
"They were good, they were really good," he said of the Melbourne fans. "They supported very hard - the same over in Perth. We couldn't have asked any more of them."
The often-spiteful final Test featured numerous physical clashes but Deledio said the Irish came out hard with plenty to prove after a 36-point loss at Subiaco one week earlier.
"They obviously wanted to make up for what happened last week and a couple of our guys retaliated and there were a few unlucky bumps here and there. (There was) nothing too bad I don't think."
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