Scaling new heights
By Chloe Saltau
The Age
May 27, 2006
WHEN Troy Simmonds shot up 15 centimetres at the age of 18, he resolved to be a ruckman, and a good one.
He was willing to travel, first from the family home in Lilydale to pre-season training at Melbourne to seize a chance through the pre-season draft, and later across the country to Fremantle (a move that meant he had to sell nine of the 11 pet snakes he was so fond of) and later still from the Dockers to Richmond, to make it happen.
"Coming from Lilydale, which was an hour away, there was one spot for 16 kids. Because I was never drafted as an 18-year-old, I just persevered and tried to work hard," Simmonds said.
"I'm always trying to get the best out of myself, which is why I leftMelbourne to go to Fremantle and become a good ruckman."
When Simmonds left Melbourne at 22, Jeff White was in his way and he was best known as the slender kid who was unfairly cleaned up by Michael Long in the 2000 grand final. But by the time he left Perth at the end of 2004, Richmond had to beat as many as four other clubs wanting to talk to him about his desire to come home.
"It got my career up and going," Simmonds said of his time in Perth. "It gave me the opportunity, for the Melbourne clubs to actually chase me."
One of the things that attracted Simmonds to Punt Road, though, was also one of the things that made his first year there a challenging one — a five-year contract generally reserved for superstars and, nowadays, viewed with suspicion by gun-shy supporters.
"He's been maligned a bit because of that," said Richmond coach Terry Wallace, who arrived at the Tigers around the same time as Brad Ottens departed for Geelong. "People sat back and said, ‘How dare anyone get a five-year contract and it's a massive contract'.
Well, financially, it wasn't. It was exactly the same offering as we made to Brad. The money wasn't massive but we thought, ‘This bloke is going to commit himself to moving states', and the reality was if we'd signed him for two years, we'd now be renegotiating for another two or three years anyway.
"We had to lure someone to this footy club. We'd just come off the back of losing 14 games in a row and I wouldn't have thought it was a place you were going to choose as your No. 1 priority unless we were prepared to offer something . . . he copped more than his fair share of flak because of it."
Significantly, Simmonds now feels he has survived that flak, and the pressure that he has said often accompanied the long-term contract. He has also moved back to his most natural position, the ruck, after the simultaneous arrival of Trent Knobel at Tigerland meant he was initially used as a powerforward alongside Matthew Richardson, a move that brought reasonable but not utterly convincing success.
"They showed a lot of faith in me. I wasn't out there looking for a five-year deal but they really came at me hard out of all the clubs I spoke to," Simmonds said as he prepared to confront Ottens, the man he replaced at Richmond, against the Cats at Kardinia Park today.
"It was a decision I was very happy with. I suppose it took me a little while to settle in and I think people were probably expecting big things because of the long-term deal.
"In my last year at Fremantle, I'd spent a bit of time forward as Aaron Sandilands came through and they didn't have a key forward, so I put my hand up to do that. But I always thought my better footy was in the ruck."
After a meeting with Wallace cleared the way for him to play first ruckman again, Simmonds spent part of the off-season training with Olympic sprinter Adam Basil to improve his mobility. He slimmed down, too, and the results have been obvious to Richmond fans in the first eight rounds of 2006.
Simmonds, now 27, did a lot of growing during his time in Perth — he developed an interest in property and finance and has since started a mortgage broking business. He also continues to dabble, more often during the off-season, in the martial art of zen do kai — he is a black belt — finding it has been good for his strength, flexibility, and his mental game.
But Simmonds didn't grow out of his snake habit. Last year, he took one of his two remaining pet pythons to training.
Some teammates cleared out of the rooms at their first glimpse; others stuck around and got to know it better. "A few of the guys, I couldn't get the snake off them. They loved it," he said. "I've still got a couple, not the same amount as I did because I had to sell a lot off when I went to WA because the legislation over there didn't allow me to take them."
In time, Simmonds also came to accept Long's apology for the head-high hit that caused such controversy at the time, something he and his parents initially found difficult.
"I've pretty much forgotten about it now. No dramas, I've seen Michael since then and had a chat and a beer with him and everything's fine.
"There's no bad blood there and I think you've just got to get on with it. I was young at the time and disappointed, but I realise it's part of footy."
When he arrived at Richmond a hulking version of the footballer that left Melbourne, Simmonds saw similarities with the Dockers, who also were at rock bottom when he arrived.
The prospect of building something from that position excited him, and still does as the younger Tigers make their mark. And Simmonds, after years of travelling, has become a very good ruckman.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/05/26/1148524891000.html
