White dons yellow and black
By Emma Quayle
The Age
December 14, 2005
Photo: Wayne Taylor
MATT White was watching the Wiggles when he became a Richmond player with the fifth pick in yesterday's pre-season draft.
Overlooked on national draft day, White started training at Punt Road two days later. He beat the entire Richmond senior squad in the endurance run, matched Brett Deledio for speed and hoped he had done enough to be picked up as a rookie.
That plan changed when the Tigers became concerned that Collingwood would jump in ahead of them, so they bumped the Calder Cannon up from their favoured first rookie to the pre-season selection they had said they probably would not make.
"I didn't even bother listening to the pre-season draft because I didn't think my chances there were that good. I was flicking around the TV just waiting for the rookie draft, then my dad came in and told me what had happened," White said.
"I thought there was way more chance of being rookied. I thought that was the spot I was going for, so it was a pretty big shock."
White moved from the Cannons' half-back line to the midfield this year, but a fractured ankle kept him out of the under-18 championships mid-season, and he missed two of Calder's first three finals with a hamstring strain. He picked up his black-and-yellow gear yesterday with fellow Cannon Angus Graham, who arrived at Calder from King Island via Assumption College, while teammates James Wall and Shane Neaves ended up at Sydney and Melbourne.
White is another drafted graduate of Essendon Keilor College, which has prepared the likes of Brent Reilly, Andrew Welsh, Brad Murphy, Ryan Crowley, Brock McLean, Lynden Dunn and Carlton rookie Jesse Smith for an AFL start.
The Tigers finished up by adding delisted West Coast midfielder Jeremy Humm and Cameron Howat, a tagging type from Box Hill, to their rookie list, with Humm coming into contention only over last weekend, when the Tigers saw that he was still young enough.
Between training yesterday morning, yoga yesterday afternoon and a boxing session this morning, White did not expect to spend long celebrating. "I might go out for dinner with the parents tonight, but that's about all. We're straight into training, which is good," he said.
"It's good that I'm on the list now but for me, there's probably no difference between this and being on the rookie list. I'm still going to have to work hard to make something happen."
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