Richmond's Pettifer draws a maligned in the sand
Chip Le Grand
The Australian
May 14, 2005
THERE are things footballers carry around like luggage. It might be a night of misjudgment at the pub or a mistake behind the wheel. It might be something silly said or done in the heat of a game. Sometimes, the heaviest weight is a well-worn adjective.
For three years, Richmond's Kayne Pettifer has been the much-maligned Kayne Pettifer. Occasionally, for the sake of change, he becomes the oft-maligned Kayne Pettifer. Where some players are magnets for the ball, others are lightning rods for supporter dissent. And no player has been more maligned than Pettifer.
"I'd look on the website and see all the crap I was copping," Pettifer explained yesterday.
"I would pick up a paper and there would be people saying the Tigers had wasted a pick on me. I was just getting bagged all the time. Being a pretty emotional bloke, it hit me hard.
"If I didn't play well I would cop it off the fans and the media and even if I was playing reserves, I would still cop it. It was a pretty tough time."
Like most things at Richmond under coach Terry Wallace, this is starting to change. Pettifer is the first to acknowledge he has a long way to go to realise the potential Richmond spotted in him five years ago. He also admits that had he arrived at Punt Road with a little more aptitude and less attitude, he may not have been so maligned in the first place.
But if Kayne has some ways to travel before he becomes an able AFL player - he was admonished by his coach two weeks ago for lairising in the goalsquare - there are unmistakable signs that the player Richmond supporters love to hate is finding his way into Tigerland hearts.
Former Richmond recruiter Greg Beck selected Pettifer with his club's first pick in the 2000 national draft and still recalls what it was about the Kyabram teenager that set him apart from other footballers his age.
In that year's under-18 national championships, Pettifer was a stand-out; a rare combination of a midfielder with ball-winning skills and a big marking small forward with a nose for a goal.
Yet Beck also recalled the first impression Pettifer made when he arrived at the club. Where the other draftees were a little overwhelmed by their new surroundings, Pettifer had a confidence that bordered on arrogance.
Where the other draftees got down to work, Pettifer declared that he would be the first of his intake to play senior football. As Beck put it this week, "he was a man in a hurry".
"It is fair to say he lost his way a little bit," Beck said. "He worked but I don't think he worked as hard as he should. He always thought he had the ability but on occasion, seemed more worried about his next contract than his form at the time."
Pettifer has spoken to Beck about this and fully agrees. As a highly gifted junior footballer, Pettifer soaked up the rave reviews which accompanied his early draft status. As a country boy freshly arrived in Melbourne, he soaked up more than his share around the city pubs and clubs.
"I thought here we go, I have made it in the AFL," he said. "I wish I could go back in time and work harder. I probably did get a bit ahead of myself at times.
"I had a lot of success in junior footy playing for Victoria and Australia. I had been told that I needed to work hard but there were times when I took the easy option.
"Being a professional athlete, I was probably going out too much and thought I had made it when I was just a borderline player.
"When Terry and his new assistant coaches came in I saw it as a fresh start and a chance to put all that behind me."
Pettifer's great fortune is that Wallace, as senior coach of the Western Bulldogs in 2000, saw him play that year in the national championships and made a similar assessment to Richmond.
In their first meeting after Wallace arrived at Punt Road, the new coach assured Pettifer that he rated him highly and saw a place for him in his first-picked 18.
"He was a player that we looked at seriously when I was coaching the Western Bulldogs to draft at the top end," Wallace said. "He had that quality as an 18-year-old and you don't lose that.
"I didn't know what the circumstances were prior to me being here but I wanted to give him every opportunity of becoming the player that I always thought he would become."
After three years as the much-maligned Kayne Pettifer, this was just what Pettifer needed to hear. But Pettifer believes the turning point came two months later when Wallace, in his pre-Christmas assessment of the playing group, told Pettifer that if the Richmond team was being selected that day, he would not be in it. Pettifer returned to Kyabram for his usual Christmas break and for the first time in his career, ran the local roads ragged.
Seven straight senior appearances to start the 2005 season have consummated Pettifer's changed relationship with his club and its supporters. His best game was Richmond's most recent against Carlton, when he kicked two goals, dished off another to Andrew Krakouer and created a fourth by laying an outstanding tackle.
At age 23 and contracted for this season only, Pettifer is determined not to repeat the mistakes of his early career. He is selling his bachelor's flat along Melbourne's famous Chapel Street strip and has been out drinking only once during the season.
He has a mentor in Matthew Richardson and a checklist of things to do every match which is scrupulously reviewed by Wallace.
And when all this fails, memories of what it is like to be a footballer much maligned.
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