Kelvin Moore repaying faith in breakthrough season
Malcolm Conn | August 01, 2008
AFTER just 24 games in four injury-riddled seasons of frustration and self-doubt, Kelvin Moore was just another young man in danger of having his AFL dream chewed up and spat out by an unforgiving system.
Suddenly a regular in 2008, he is Richmond's star stopper. The brave and nerveless key defender who put himself between Lions man-mountain Jonathan Brown and the ball with just 30 seconds remaining last Saturday night, to take a great mark and instantaneously begin one final desperate rebound with 30 seconds to play.
"I was a bit lucky that it fell short and I happened to be in front so for once instead of punching I thought I'd go for the mark and it ended up in my arms," Moore recalled with some understatement this week.
"I knew there wasn't long to go so I gave it to Jordan McMahon on the open side of the ground and he's quick."
The rest, as they say, is history. What was shaping as another fractured Tiger fairytale after a brilliant last quarter became an uplifting victory as Richmond, which so often burns the ball with poor skills, linked up to hit Joel Bowden on the chest for his third goal of the quarter.
That Moore had the will, ability and foresight to mark so strongly and play on so quickly was vindication for coach Terry Wallace of the improvement the player and his team have made this season after stringing together five wins in six weeks to have an outside chance of making the finals.
"The confidence to get in front and take the mark when he could have thought 'It's Jonathan Brown, I'll just kill the ball' was terrific," Wallace said.
"The work he's been doing with (defensive coach David King) and the whole confidence level of our players that the best way to defend is get a hold of the footy by marking it yourself.
"Equally as good was that he didn't have a relief factor, he didn't show the ball to the crowd, straight away he released to the other side of the ground, which gave us the opportunity of winning the game."
Like just about every club in the competition, Richmond is destined for a major reality check when it takes on juggernaut Geelong, at Telstra Dome tomorrow night, followed by games against the Crows in Adelaide and then third-placed Hawthorn.
But for the moment the 10th-placed Tigers and their frustrated fans can dare to dream, sitting as they are just a game behind fifth-placed North Melbourne with the same percentage.
With a name like Kelvin Moore, history says he should be a quality defender. Another Kelvin Moore played 300 games and in three premierships at full-back for Hawthorn during the '70s and early '80s. They are no relation and Richmond's Moore said his parents had been hopeful that Hawthorn's Moore would have faded sufficiently from the football psyche once their son began playing in the AFL. That hasn't been the case.
"I get it all the time," laughs Tiger Moore. "Everyone thinks he's my father. I've never actually met him."
Like the Kelvin Moore that came before him, almost every week is yet another big game on a big name, with opponents this year also including Essendon's Matthew Lloyd, Hawthorn's Lance Franklin, Fremantle's Matthew Pavlich and Carlton's Brendan Fevola.
This is a far cry from the Yarra Valley Grammar student who turned his back on Victoria's football factory by walking away from Eastern Rangers, part of the elite under-18 competition, to concentrate on his last year at school. Moore has battled the odds ever since but he persisted and Wallace kept the faith.
There are very few AFL footballers given the chance to establish themselves at 24.
"There were signs last year," said Wallace, who recalled Moore shutting down the Swans' robust and relentless Ryan O'Keefe twice in 2007.
Moore has relished the challenges, and credits King as the mentor who has given him the confidence and skills to take on the best each week. From the first time he met Moore, King believed there was an AFL footballer just waiting to burst forth.
"You can see the impressive physique that he's got. He has everything that the modern AFL footballer is," said King.
"It's a fantastic reward for a fantastic kid."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24109291-5012432,00.html
