Late bloomer ready to debutBy Paul Daffey
Thu 19 Jan, 2012WHILE almost all AFL ruckmen are 200cm, there would be few who have reached their height at the age that Richmond ruckman Tom Derickx stopped growing.
At 21, Derickx was 195cm. Two years later, he was 202cm. Now 24, and fully grown, he believes he's ready to break through for his AFL debut.
"I was like a baby giraffe for a couple of years there pretty uncoordinated, pretty skinny but it's all good now," he said.
Derickx grew up in Dunsborough, near Margaret River, in the south-west of Western Australia. One of his loves was surfing, and he's made the odd trip to Torquay since moving to Melbourne.
As a junior footballer, Derickx was mainly a key forward. It was only at Claremont in the WAFL that he blossomed into his current height and became a ruckman.
Richmond took him at No.63 in the 2010 NAB AFL National Draft, when he was still 22. He had ambitions to play senior with the Tigers football straight away only to suffer a difficult first season.
"I was hoping for a couple of games early but I injured my heel in the NAB Cup—bruised the fat pad—which kept me out until round eight," he said.
"Then I got a little bit of form back in the VFL. I played five games but broke my ankle, so I missed the rest of the season."
Derickx's plan this year is to remain injury free and give himself every chance of making his AFL debut.
It was expected that he would compete with Ivan Maric, Angus Graham and Andrew Browne for the main ruckman's role, but his work during the pre-season has been geared towards him playing as a tall forward with the occasional run on the ball.
"I still wouldn't mind getting into the midfield and getting into the game," he said.
"But I'm fine if I just get in the team."
Off the field, Derickx is a rarity among AFL players in that he's completed an apprenticeship. He's a carpenter.
He likes life as an AFL footballer because he now doesn't have to work on the tools all day and then front up for training in the evening, as he did at Claremont.
"It's good not to have to work and train - just train," he said.
And what about the "x"? The whacky spelling?
Derickx said it's a Dutch thing. His grandfather was Dutch. He came out to Australia as a young man looking for an adventure.
Now Tom Derickx is on the verge of an adventure of his own.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/127995/default.aspx
