Tiger debutant straight to the ball
By Emma Quayle
The Age
May 8, 2006
DEAN Polo spent the last half of last week at home, plonked on his couch trying to think about anything other than what his first game for Richmond might bring.
"I just stayed at home. I tried to stay away and not think about it at all," the 19-year-old said. "I watched a heap of movies."
Nearing the dramatic conclusion of that first match, though, Polo was prepared to spend a moment or two picturing what would happen next. Late in the final quarter against Essendon on Saturday night, the teenager saw a loose ball bouncing towards him.
He knew that it would come to him, and he knew what he would do with it when it did. "Even before I picked it up, I just said 'goal'. I knew I was going to kick it, so I've grabbed it and just run. I knew I was going to go for it and she came off, surprisingly," Polo said.
He learnt last Wednesday that he would be in the team. On the same day, coach Terry Wallace found Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls in the Punt Road gym and told him he would also play his first game.
Polo's goal was his third. It was the last goal of the game, and brought the Tigers back level with Essendon. Then, Oakley-Nicholls slid to the top of the 50-metre arc, and sent through a decisive point.
"Terry told me to take them on, so I just tried to take them on. I was hoping for a goal, but at the last minute it faded away," Oakley-Nicholls said afterwards. "It's the biggest point I've ever kicked."
On Anzac Day, Polo played at centre half-back for Coburg against Box Hill — winning a medal for being best player on the ground. Against Essendon, he had five kicks in the first quarter and six handballs in the second.
He had touched the ball 28 times by the end, slipping tacklers and slipping handballs out to teammates. He got his second award in two weeks, a glass boomerang called the Yiooken Award, for the best on the ground.
Polo stuck his head over the ball, ran hard, and did all the things Greg Miller saw him do three years ago, when the Tigers decided to draft him from Wy Yung, his tiny home town near Bairnsdale.
Miller has since seen Polo shuffle from the VFL reserves, to a bench spot in the Coburg team and, in the past few weeks, to the edge of the Richmond team. It was not the move to Melbourne Polo took time to adjust to, said Miller, but the standard of football he realised he would have to play.
"Most of these country kids are very good for the first month, and then things start to catch up with them," Miller said. "They come again, but some come again a bit quicker than others.
"There's a stage, between three and five months, or three and six months, where the adrenaline's worn off, and they're tired, and the work starts all over again.
"Dean took a while, but he's gradually improved, the whole time. For the last few weeks at Coburg, his form has been outstanding."
Not even Polo expected to play as well as he did. "It's a dream," he said. "But once I knew I got the opportunity, there was no looking back. I was just going to go for it."
Wallace had not bothered to pencil in 20-plus possessions and a few goals, either. But the teenager had already impressed. "I would have expected him to play well, because he's very brave," Wallace said. "From that aspect, I thought he'd go OK. But no one expected the magnitude of his game."
GREAT DEBUTSby Rohan Connolly
JOHN COLEMAN (Essendon)v Hawthorn
(Windy Hill, round 1, 1949)
The 20-year-old full-forward from Hastings launched one of the game's greatest careers in spectacular fashion with 12 goals against the Hawks. He'd go on to kick an even 100 in a premiership year.
CARL DITTERICH (St Kilda)v Melbourne
(Junction Oval, round 1, 1963)
At just 17, the big blond ruckman announced his arrival on the VFL scene with an outstanding best-on-ground performance in the ruck in the Saints' 18-point win over the Demons.
JOHN GEORGIADES (Footscray)v Carlton
(Princes Park, round 1, 1989)
The former WA forward wasn't a big-name recruit when he played his first game, but made a sensational start with eight goals in a big Bulldog win over the Blues. But he'd kick only another 19 in just 14 more games with the club.
ADRIAN McADAM (North Melb)v Richmond
(MCG, round 5, 1993)
The younger brother of former Saint Gilbert McAdam lit up a Friday night with seven spectacular goals for the reborn Roos. He followed it up with 10 goals the next week against Sydney.
PAUL HASLEBY (Fremantle)v Geelong
(Subiaco, round 1, 2000)
The stocky midfielder was an instant hit for the Dockers against the Cats in a Subiaco night game, compiling 30 disposals and kicking a goal in a narrow loss. He'd go on to win that season's Rising Star Award.
ANDREW WALKER (Carlton)v West Coast
(Optus Oval, round 5, 2004)
The No. 2 pick in the 2003 national draft spent a month in the VFL before being unveiled before a home crowd, responding with 26 disposals, nine marks and four tackles, plus a spectacular leap that would have been mark of the year had he hung on to the ball.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/05/07/1146940410754.html
