Axel steps up for Tigers
12:58:13 PM Thu 18 August, 2005
Angus Morgan
Sportal for afl.com.au
While some players may be looking forward to the end of a long year, it seems Richmond youngster Nathan Foley wouldn't mind at all if the premiership season was to run for another month or three.
The only Tiger retained from last year's rookie list and promoted mid-season to the senior list in David Rodan's stead, Foley feels he is just starting to rise to the challenge of making it at AFL level.
Over the past couple of weeks, coach Terry Wallace has assigned Foley to run with some of the most prolific midfielders in the competition, a big ask for the compact on-baller from Colac via the Geelong Under-18s.
"Terry's given me the opportunity to play on some of the better opposition midfielders like (Peter) Bell and (Scott) West and those sort of blokes," Foley told afl.com.au.
"It makes it a lot easier if you can follow those blokes around and learn a few tricks off them; they take you to the ball.
"Terry still says to try and get as much of the ball as you can. It's not all about the tagging, but getting the opportunity to play on those blokes you learn so much more and what I've learned in the last two weeks alone has just been unbelievable.
"It's like a massive bonus playing on those sort of players."
Foley understands that developing the defensive side of his game is an important part of his education, but it's in an in-and-under role that he really wants to make his mark.
Foley gave a hint of his skills in that area with an outstanding 48-possession match (22 kicks, 26 handballs) in the VFL for Coburg against Williamstown in the wet at Punt Road early last month, an effort that prompted his promotion to the seniors for the round 17 match against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.
"In (Mark) Coughlan and (Shane) Tuck and (Kane) Johnson we already have a lot of ball-winners, but hopefully I can add another dimension to my game and combine ball-winning and also get on the end of a few," he said.
"(Richmond assistant coach) Brian Royal is trying to work with me on that. He played a similar role to me when he was playing and I've spent a fair bit of time with 'Choco' since the start of the year."
Having achieved his goal for 2005 of winning promotion to the senior list, Foley's next aim is to be retained for 2006.
Now with four senior appearances to his credit, the 20 year-old believes he's gone a long way towards dispelling the perception that he's not quite big enough to make it at senior level, and he's looking forward to reinforcing his case over the final two rounds, plus finals should the Tigers make it.
"It's obviously been an issue all the way through since my junior football. Trying to get drafted it kept coming up that I'm 177 centimeters, but once you're out on the field, the role I play, it doesn't affect me at all, it's been fine," he said.
"I just want to play some good footy in the next two weeks and then go from there. That would be ideal, to play some decent footy and finish the season well just to cement Terry's opinion of me."
And while Foley is determined to make a name for himself, it seems his team-mates have already made a name for him - a nickname, Axel - after the Eddie Murphy maverick detective character, Axel Foley, in the Beverly Hills Cop movies.
Apparently young Tiger Foley had never heard of Axel Foley or Beverly Hills Cop which was released in 1984, the year before he was born, until the day he set foot at Tigerland.
"The first day I rocked up at Punt Road I pretty much got called Axel, and ever since, that's been it," he said with a chuckle.
"I reckon some of the trainers don't know my first name. I'm generally regarded as Axel."
"Back home I wasn't called Axel at all. The first I'd heard of it was when I got to Richmond and it's stuck pretty solidly."
Foley said he has since been to see Beverly Hills Cop at the cinema, "so I know what's going on now".
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