I couldn't see this on the net so I scanned it in....
Grimes climbs to senior status
By Matt Windley
Sunday Herald-Sun
29 Aug 2010, Page 61
THE ascension of Dylan Grimes to senior AFL football is a win for perseverance.
The 19-year-old will become the 42nd player used by Richmond this year after overcoming several setbacks to get to where he is today.
Grimes missed the Under-18 national championships last year after he was overlooked by Vic Metro selectors.
Late last year he thought his AFL dream was dashed after he was overlooked in the National Draft.
And he has even been overlooked once in the AFL system -- waiting for 22 weeks as 11 Tiger cubs made their senior debuts ahead of him.
Grimes could barely contain his excitement when he spoke to the Sunday Herald Sun this week, but said it could have been a different story for him had Richmond not come calling before last December's pre-season draft.
"After missing out in the draft I thought, `Maybe this isn't for me','' Grimes said.
"I was happy with what I'd done at school, so I applied for uni courses and I was sort of coming to grips with the fact that maybe football wasn't going to be my career.
"I made contact with the Northern Bullants and thought I could go train down there for a while, but then I was really lucky to be able to train with Richmond and then be picked up in the pre-season draft.''
Grimes' selection is also a win for the good guys.
Denis Pagan, his coach at the Northern Knights in the TAC Cup last year, says of Grimes: ``He's a quality individual -- and I mean quality with a capital Q.''
Not that Grimes has been given a sympathy game.
Richmond football manager Ross Monaghan spoke in glowing terms about Grimes' character, but said it was impossible to ignore the versatile defender after the form he has shown in the VFL.
"He's spent quite a good part of the year playing VFL reserves,'' Monaghan said.
"But he's never dropped his head. Eventually he got chances at VFL senior level and acquitted himself really well to the point where he was knocking the door down for an AFL game.''
