Tiger growing in statureEMMA QUAYLE
May 9, 2010BEN Nason never expected to be drafted, never expected to overcome leg injuries in time for the pre-season games and never thought he would be lining up for Richmond in its first NAB Cup match. He never expected to be on the ground clutching an injured knee in the first term, wondering if his debut season was over before it had started.
"When they first took me down to the rooms, I was really upset," he said. "I didn't know what it felt like to do a knee, so I just felt pretty confused. I thought my year might be gone, there and then."
In the rooms, the doctors believed he had suffered only bone bruising, and they were proved right days later. After two weeks off, Nason got back in the side for the last two practice games, and on the Tuesday before Richmond's round-one game against Carlton, he was called into coach Damien Hardwick's office and asked if he'd like to run out on the MCG.
Since then, the 20-year-old has stayed in the team, improving and feeling more and more like he belongs. "It's just starting," he said, "to feel a bit more natural out there."
Nason knows what successful sides look like. This time last season, he was living at home in the Adelaide suburbs, working full-time with a fibreglass company and playing football for the Central District reserves. Having just crossed to the club, Nason couldn't imagine making the senior side, which had won eight of the last 10 SANFL premierships. He hadn't made the SA under-16 side, he hadn't been picked in its under-18 squad and, after growing up through the junior ranks at the Port Adelaide Magpies, he had been told at the end of 2008 that he was too small to ever play a senior game.
"I always thought I had no chance to play AFL, but I still didn't really give up," he said. "Whenever someone asked what I wanted to do, that's what I would say."
As soon as he was ditched by the Magpies, his new team called, and Nason was happy to go there, having grown up barracking for Centrals and adoring James and Chris Gowans, the team's tough twins. "I used to go and watch them play with my best mate since I was three," he said. "He used to love James Gowans, and I always had Chris' number on my jumper. When I got to the club, I felt a little bit star-struck."
Nason was given a role on the half-forward line, and started to feel like the team needed him. Then he made the South Australian under-20 team, and was told he may be destined for bigger things. "The senior coach sat me down and said, 'At the start of the year, I would never have considered you someone who could play, and now I feel like I could chuck you in any week if we need you'," said Nason, who played in the final round of the season and in the first final but has no idea why or how he improved. "I think it just felt good to feel like I was wanted."
The AFL clubs were next to get in touch, with Geelong, Port Adelaide and Fremantle sending letters before Richmond officials rang a week before the draft and then flew over. Nason felt nauseous during his interview - "I never sweat, and I couldn't stop sweating" - but by draft night he was less nervous, because he never thought he'd be picked.
While his dad listened to the draft on radio at work and his mum followed it on the internet, he watched it on TV at a mate's place. "They were doing an interview on screen when my name was called out, and it was so faint, but I was convinced that I heard it," he said. "It came up on the screen after that, and within 15 minutes I was home and there were all these people outside my house waiting. It still gives me goose bumps now, to think back on it."
Nason didn't expect to play in Richmond's first six games, but he doesn't want to stop now. "I'm getting more used to the structures and knowing what the other players are going to do," he said. "It's a massive step up, but it just feels right. I feel like I'm supposed to be there, in a way. Not winning isn't too good, but that will come. I know we'll win soon. We'll get there."
Milking it: After playing SANFL reserves a year ago, Ben Nason has played every game for Richmond this year.http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tiger-growing-in-stature-20100508-ukyu.html
