Rodan ready to ride his luck
8:08:35 PM Sat 25 June, 2005
Matt Burgan
Exclusive to afl.com.au
The 2001 NAB AFL Draft is often referred to as one out of the box. It is commonly known among the football fraternity as the 'Hodge, Ball and Judd draft'.
But when you consider that the likes of Brad Miller, Paul Medhurst and Adam Schneider were drafted in the back end - from 55 onwards - the talent pool clearly stretched deep.
As is now the norm, many of those players taken in the class of 2001, had earlier showed their wares in front of the many recruiters at the NAB AFL Draft Camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
One player to make a significant impact at that camp was then Calder Cannon and now Richmond onballer/forward David Rodan. His dedication and determination to succeed in front of the talent spotters was apparent and he quickly became a talking point.
His starred in the majority of tests undertaken at the camp and history shows he was taken as Richmond's first selection that year - No.33 overall.
Entering 2004, Rodan had made 60 AFL appearances of a possible 66 matches - a fine achievement for a player still only 21 years old.
But a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, sustained during a pre-season practice match in Morwell, ended any thought of the tenacious Tiger adding to his game tally in 2005. But has it really?
Rodan's dedication to get his knee and body back to AFL standard has left the door ajar - if only slightly - for a possible return later in the season.
"We don't know, but there is a possibility. I'm not sure by the coaching committee, but I haven't ruled myself out, but I think personally, I might be fit enough to finish with a few games in, but I think the first priority is just to get it right and to get it ready," Rodan told afl.com.au exclusively at Richmond's mid-season break at Laguna Whitsundays.
"I'm a different player to most, where I need my knees a bit more, because I do a lot of twisting and turning and I think that'll put a bit more pressure on my knees, so I might need that extra rest, so that's what I'm thinking. First and foremost, (I've) just got to get it right and then we'll see from there."
Rodan said he was ahead of schedule in his comeback.
"It's going really well. I'm doing most of the running with the boys and my weight training has been pretty basic at the moment and I'm just trying to build the muscles up around me knee, but I'm doing most things at the moment, apart from kicking, which I will be able to do in the next week or two," Rodan said.
Rodan said the trip to Laguna had 'definitely' come at the right time of the year for both the club and him personally. He said after the initial disappointment of injuring his knee, he quickly moved onto getting himself back on the paddock.
"I was a bit frustrated for the first couple of nights when I did it, but then after that I got over it and I knew what I had to do to come back. All the negative thoughts can't really help you and it can't do you any good, so I just got them out of way and concentrated on what I could do and got back to that," Rodan said.
Rodan's infectious attitude and nature is clearly evident in a team environment, and it's hardly surprising many of the younger Tigers often feed off his presence and seek his advice.
"A lot of the boys come up to me and approach me and ask me a lot of questions because I have been here for a few years … and I'm still pretty young," Rodan said.
"I'm only a couple of years older than these younger guys, but I'm pretty approachable and they ask me what to expect at training sessions and what we should eat or whatever it might be.
"I definitely feel that I've needed to step up a little bit and especially for the younger guys, because we went through what they're going through a few years ago and now we try to help them out as much as we can."
During the mid-season review undertaken at Laguna, Richmond coach Terry Wallace highlighted several players throughout the meeting, yet it was his genuine and heartening recognition towards Rodan that summed the player up.
"I'm absolutely rapt with David Rodan's work ethic," Wallace said during the review.
Rodan was naturally buoyed by Wallace's comments, which came in front of his teammates, several members of the media and coterie groups.
"It definitely felt good to hear him say that and it was good to get that feedback, especially when I'm not in the playing group at the moment," Rodan said.
"I understand that he's really with those 22 that are out there and he's really involved with them, but it's good to get feedback when I'm not interacting as much, because I'm not playing.
"It's good to know that he acknowledges it a bit and realises that, so it was a good feeling and I'm glad he said that."
For Rodan, it will be a good feeling when he is darting around again in the yellow and black, which for both he and Richmond supporters could be sooner than expected.
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