Third coach lucky: Fiora
03 August 2007 Herald Sun
Bruce Matthews
ONE is a four-time All-Australian, three-time best-and-fairest and now club captain. The other feared he would get the chop from his second AFL club before this season.
Aaron Fiora, the latter, long ago came to terms with the brutal reality that his name will be inescapably linked to Matthew Pavlich in career comparisons.
It once bothered the lithe left-footer, who admitted he self-consciously played for himself in a vain bid to live up to lofty expectations at unforgiving Richmond, the resentment accentuated by Pavlich's growing stature with Fremantle.
Even now the traded Tiger doesn't feel he truly belongs at St Kilda, despite being among only five Saints to play every game so far this season, boosting his career tally to 125.
"I think I've improved in those areas that I wasn't proficient, the ball-gets and the tackling. I'm still not a leader by any standard in that stuff, but it's slowly coming along," Fiora said.
Expect the 26-year-old to be used in bursts off the bench at Telstra Dome tonight as an integral part of the Saints' midfield rotations to combat the hard-running Western Bulldogs.
This year he ranks fifth at St Kilda for inside 50s behind Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Lenny Hayes.
It wasn't Fiora's fault Richmond nabbed him at No. 3 in the 1999 national draft.
Fremantle wanted him too, but when he was gone, the Dockers took Pavlich with the next pick. We know the rest.
While the massive Pavlich won rave reviews and a clutch of individual awards as a key forward, Fiora, who weighed only 64kg when he arrived at Punt Rd, was traded to the Saints after 78 generally forgettable games in five seasons.
"I did think about it a fair bit in the first couple of years. That's probably why I didn't play consistent footy because I was always wanting to get the ball in my hands," he said.
"I didn't do the team things. I was probably a bit selfish because I wanted to show that I was as good, I was worthy.
"I thought I played more games there than I probably should have. Maybe because I was a high draft pick and when there were injuries, I kept my spot in the team and I really wasn't playing that well."
Ask a Tiger supporter their initial thought when Fiora was offloaded to St Kilda at the end of 2004 and the kindest answer will be relief.
The feeling was mutual for the maligned Fiora, grateful for a second chance under then coach Grant Thomas.
"Obviously there was nothing for me at Richmond and I thought it was a good opportunity to come to an up-and-coming club. It has been a good move, although I'm still a bit inconsistent," he said.
"I think Thommo was pretty keen just to let me play. It was good to hear that. I probably didn't play as consistently as I would have liked to repay his faith in bringing me here.
"One week the effort would be there, making tackles, doing all the team things. And the next week it wouldn't be there. If you're not doing those team things, you're not going to get it together."
When Thomas was sacked late last year, Fiora thought he was gone too and contemplated a possible return to Port Adelaide, where he played a handful of senior games in the SANFL before being drafted.
"I thought I wasn't going to be here, that I would get delisted at the end of last year," he said.
"I suppose for Thommo I was a bit of a project because I had already played five years (in the AFL). I thought they might've decided to get another younger kid in, which was probably fair enough."
Instead, new coach Ross Lyon has utilised Fiora's breakaway pace and kick penetration, tossing him assorted assignments: up forward, in the midfield, a run-with role, even down back when injuries depleted the defence earlier in the season.
"I always had the footy in my hands to try to use my strengths. But now you've got to be making those tackles, doing all the team things. They win a game of footy," Fiora said.
"The last few weeks when we've been going well, I've been starting on the bench and giving the midfielders a bit of a breather. I'm not sure I have it yet, but hopefully it's coming.
"It's still a week by week thing. But I'm starting to feel more part of it now because I am doing those team things a little more than in the past. I feel better about myself with those types of things."
Danny Frawley, Richmond's senior coach in Fiora's five seasons there, said it was not wrong to compare him with another Tiger reject: Geelong's Brad Ottens. "It (the Pavlich comparison) would've been a hard one for him to cop," Frawley said.
"Leaving Richmond has really helped him. Look at Ottens' form, they're talking about him being an All-Australian ruckman. "The expectations are often a hard thing for a young guy to grapple with and the Ottens analogy with him is pretty sound.
"I think some times we put players in pigeonholes on where they're drafted. Really, you've just got to look at them as to what they've got.
"We would've liked a bit more out of him. But in saying that, he was just a kid that was pretty lightly framed. You thought he was going to have a big build, but he wasn't able to get that build to play inside.
"He's a modern-day wingman. He'll play 200 games, what more can you ask from a kid?"
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