Tigerland's cub ready to hammer Collingwood
Malcolm Conn
The Australian
July 01, 2006
DEAN POLO, the rising Richmond midfielder, will begin to fulfil one of the two great wishes of his life by starting a building apprenticeship next week.
The 19-year-old will continue the other when he lines up for the Tigers in tomorrow's match against a rampant Collingwood at the MCG.
The two occupations have a surprising amount in common. Both take place mainly outdoors, involve considerable skill, and are hands on.
This suits the unfazed East Gippsland country kid from the small Wy Yung footy club in Bairnsdale, who made a stunning AFL debut with a breathtaking match against Essendon in round six.
"I'm a hands-on type of person," Polo said. "I like getting my hands dirty. I like the idea of building houses; keeping my hands occupied."
This, says Richmond football manager Greg Miller, is one of Polo's great attributes on the field too.
"We liked his ability to want to be involved in a lot of contests and work hard from pack to pack," Miller said.
Polo admits that his love of the outdoors is way beyond that of the classroom or the office.
"I couldn't really sit in front of a computer all day," he said.
Indeed, Miller said this was obvious from the time Polo arrived at Punt Road in late 2004 when some of the football education took place indoors, working through team plans and the like.
"Some of the classroom stuff was killing him," Miller said.
"He found that part pretty tough initially. All credit to him now the way he is playing. It was a slow old process for him at the initial stages." That slow process proved to be on and off the field.
"He had an interesting first four or five months," Miller said. "He arrived with a bang and did extremely well in the (2004) pre-Christmas testing.
"Early in the New Year he went backwards for a couple of months. He was really tired. He struggled and started off in the Coburg seconds (at Richmond's feeder club).
"He started off in the depths and worked his way up. The whole thing got to him a bit. It was all pretty exhausting for him.
"The level of concentration and the level of understanding of AFL football was more than he'd ever had to endure before."
Polo admits as much.
"It probably took me a bit longer than some other blokes (to settle in)," he said.
"When I came to the club I was nowhere near ready to play AFL football.
"All the coaches and I knew that.
"It's definitely a big step from country footy to the AFL."
After finishing 2004 in dreadful shape on the bottom of the ladder, the Tigers loaded up with young talent, taking five in the top 20 from the draft, including Polo at number 20.
The other four - Brett Deledio (1), Richard Tambling (4), Danny Meyer (12) and Adam Pattison (16) - all made their debuts last season, with Deledio playing all 22 games and winning the Rising Star award for the best young player.
Polo began to shine with Coburg this season to the point where he beat another star in the making, Hawthorn's Lance Franklin, in a match, giving coach Terry Wallace the confidence to pick Polo in the Tigers' line-up.
That confidence was instantly rewarded.
It was less than two months ago that Polo played a spectacular first game against Essendon in front of almost 60,000 screaming supporters.
He could not have had a bigger day, or night, out, gaining 28 possessions and kicking three vital goals to be awarded best on ground.
Wallace, who has been coaching for more than a decade, was emphatic about what he saw.
"I don't think I have coached someone who has played a better debut game," he said.
Polo couldn't have been more delighted. "I went into the game nervous but I just thought 'it's another game of football. I've been playing football all my life. What's the difference," he recalled this week.
"I tried to be as confident as I could and it all panned out for me.
"Luck was on my side that night."
Given the story so far, it appears that Polo has earned his luck.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19643231-36035,00.html
