Knobel endeavour boon to Tigers
Malcolm Conn
The Australian
July 15, 2005
TRENT KNOBEL talks of a quiet resolve to further prove himself against his former club, St Kilda, tomorrow but must still be suffering a rawness following his humiliating departure from Moorabbin late last year.
The Richmond ruckman is eternally grateful for another opportunity and will lead the Tigers' ruck division in a match so important it is likely to decide which of these two topsy-turvy sides will play in the finals this season.
While Knobel insists he only wants to look forward and constantly refers to how much he is enjoying life at Punt Road, there was a time, however brief, when he must have wondered if he still had a league career.
For not only did St Kilda coach Grant Thomas sack Knobel, it is lore that Thomas laid a disproportionate amount of blame on his ruckman's broad shoulders for the Saints' one-goal preliminary final loss to eventual premier Port Adelaide.
Perhaps this should have been no surprise given the club's recent history with ruckmen. Matthew Capuano was cut mid-season in amazing circumstances in 2003, prompting an angry outburst about duty of care from Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, among others.
"I'd rather not get into that," Knobel said of his sacking this week. "I don't want a war of words."
Knobel insists his desire to perform against the Saints is no different to any footballer wanting to play well against his former club.
"In any game like that you want to prove yourself," Knobel said.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Knobel's football journey is not who he is playing for but that he ever played the game at all.
At a time of year when the cream of the next draft show their wares at the annual under-18 interstate carnival, Knobel grew up on the Gold Coast with only the most casual interest in AFL.
Born into a rugby league culture, Knobel's father refused to let his son play the sport, believing he was too tall and thin to cope with its physical demands.
So Knobel played a season of under-8s in the local competition then promptly gave it away to pursue swimming and lifesaving.
It was not until he was 15 that a couple of mates from Benowa High School, five minutes inland from Surfers Paradise, convinced Knobel to make a comeback because the school team needed a ruckman.
"Like most teenagers I was trying all sorts of sports and AFL sort of just fell into my lap," Knobel said. "Who knows where I would have been if my mates hadn't approached me. I guess I owe a bit to those blokes from high school."
Once he made a couple of representative sides Knobel began to believe he had a future.
"I started to get very serious about it," he said, moving to QAFL club Broadbeach, where the Brisbane Lions saw his potential and drafted him as a rookie.
After two years and 13 games with the Lions, Knobel was traded to St Kilda at the end of 2001 and discovered for the first time just what AFL culture was really all about.
"I was shocked to see how people in Melbourne followed their AFL," Knobel said.
"With rugby league in Queensland it's just not the same. Victorians generally just love their sport more. They have more teams and they follow it with more passion.
"They're just a passionate football state and they love their AFL."
Twice in his short career Knobel, 25, has moved from a top club to a bottom side and twice he has seen it rise around him, only to be moved on.
But it is no surprise that Knobel's career was almost instantly revived.
Although unfashionable and at times awkward he stands 202cm, weighs 105kg, gets his hands on the ball hundreds of times a season as a tap ruckman and relishes a physical contest playing in the position that demands it most.
Richmond coach Terry Wallace met Knobel within two hours of him being shown the door at Moorabbin.
"I would have been there in 10 minutes if it had suited him," Wallace said.
However, the Tigers were still sorting out a trade for Fremantle big man Troy Simmonds so Knobel was invited to train with Carlton.
When Richmond found it did not need to use its first choice in the pre-season draft for Simmonds, the Tigers chose Knobel despite already having two senior big men, Simmonds and Greg Stafford.
Describing Knobel as a "crash-and-bash merchant," Wallace believed Knobel's best asset is his work ethic.
"He's pretty fit, pretty athletic for a big fella, and he's prepared to put his body on the line, tackle, chase and do all those one-per-cent things as well," Wallace said.
"That all combined, I thought he was a pretty valuable player to pick up."
Used more widely than he was at St Kilda, Knobel has become more involved in matches than previously, when he spent considerable periods on the bench. There is part of his game though that Wallace was pleasantly surprised to unearth.
"He's a little bit more of a general than I expected him to be," he said. "He's been pretty strong with the players, has his say and helps structure up things properly for us on field and at training. That was a side of him that surprised me a little bit. He had some good, genuine leadership qualities."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15931279%255E36035,00.html
