Nothing average about Joe Dare Sam Edmund | Herald Sun | November 06, 2009
SIX months ago Joe Dare was convinced his future lay as a dairy farmer.
It was the lifestyle he'd quit school after Year 11 to pursue; the lifestyle the middle son of Robyn and Dennis's five boys loved.
Then came football, a growth spurt and a rise to prominence so fast it has left not only his head spinning, but also those of AFL recruiters.
The rangy Geelong Falcons defender from Nalangil, outside Colac, has gone from an underdeveloped face in the crowd to a possible top 30 draft pick on November 26 after a dream season in the TAC Cup.
But, perhaps in a sign of how quickly his life has changed, Dare refuses to believe he is guaranteed anything on draft day.
And, while most kids who miss out are shattered when the years of hard work and dedication are not rewarded, 18-year-old Dare smiles at the thought of milking cows, ploughing paddocks and cutting silage as a second prize.
Clearly, this is not your average Joe.
"When you're younger, every kid says they're going to play AFL," Dare said.
"But because I was late developing and late growing, the maths didn't add up when you consider only about five Falcons get drafted each year.
"I could pick 20 kids who were better than me at under-15 and under-16 level. Back then, and even through this year, I was just playing footy because I like it. I wasn't playing to impress anyone.
"Then things sort of changed a bit."
The moment things changed for the 188cm, 81kg backman can be traced to the afternoon of July 18 - the day club scouts finally became aware he was 18 and not 17.
Dare had been in sparkling form all season, but recruiters had been put off because his age was incorrectly listed in the AFL Victoria Record.
"A couple of recruiters said, 'Isn't it a pity Joe Dare is 17 and only available to the Gold Coast?'," Falcons regional manager Michael Turner said.
"We were playing down in Oakleigh against the Chargers and (Swans recruiter) Kinnear Beatson came over and made the comment at the three-quarter time break, and I said, 'Well that's wrong, Kinnear, he's actually top age'.
"It's just Joe's laid-back attitude. We tell the kids to check all the details we have in the footy record that are in there every week and it just slipped through."
Dare is your typical unaffected country lad, but it was the birthdate error that caused his father, Dennis, to claim he might be too laid-back for his own good.
"I was just happy to get a game in Round 1 up in Bendigo and my Mum and I noticed they had my birthdate at 17/10/92 and not 17/10/91," Dare said.
"We didn't say anything. I didn't want to cause any trouble for anyone to have to change it, so I let it go and every week it was the same in every Record."
The laid-back approach extended to his choice of footwear as well, with Dare lucky to escape more serious punishment after turning up to an away game against Gippsland in Round 11 wearing Ugg boots.
"We had a big bus trip (to Morwell) and we had to be on the bus at 7am and I wore Ugg boots," Dare said.
"I had Ugg boots with a hole in them and Mick (Turner) wasn't happy. A couple of weeks before that I'd had a couple of reasonable games, and the boys thought I would have copped a bigger spray and been dropped if that hadn't happened.
"Then at the Oakleigh game (Round 15) I accidentally wore them again.
"I was walking from the car and I've seen Mick looking at my feet as I walked to the rooms, and I thought, 'Oh s--t'."
Coincidentally, the Ugg boot-wearing games were his best of the year in a season Turner admitted had exceeded all expectations.
Dare had made the Falcons squad in 2008, but missed the first 10 weeks after copping a knee in an already sore back in a practice match.
Underdeveloped and unable to get back in the team, he played the last nine games of the season for local club Colac and won the under-18 best-and-fairest.
But in his own words, an AFL career was nowhere on his horizon.
Then he grew 10cm in six months, setting the scene for the breakout 2009 season.
Dare won the Falcons' best-and-fairest this month, edging out midfielder Zach Ledin and utility Ben Cunnington, rated by many as a top-five draft prospect.
"I don't think Joe ever viewed himself as an AFL player," Turner said.
"At 15, 16, 17, he was very underdeveloped, but he grew a lot and matured.
"His dad was probably sitting back thinking he was going to get a bit more help with Joe taking on more at the farm, but I said that Plan B has come into effect and he better have a decent crack at footy.
"He's got a great attitude, wins his own footy, he's a fantastic decision-maker with good skills and he can really set up the play."
Several clubs agree, with Dare having his share of interviews, even though his upfront and blunt approach initially caught Collingwood representatives slightly off guard.
Magpies officials asked Dare how he would feel if he were drafted by the club, only for the teenager to respond with words to the effect of: "You either love Collingwood or hate Collingwood, and I barrack for Essendon, so you know where I sit."
Reminded of the interview this week, Dare laughed: "I then said that every footy club is full of good blokes and that's just the hat the public put on them.
"So that sort of smoothed it over."
He will know in less than three weeks whether an AFL club takes his life in a dramatic new direction.
But for now, any mention of the prospect is greeted with "if" not "when", and a heck of a lot of work at the Nalangil dairy farm.
"Dad just tells me to give footy your best shot because the farm is always going to be here at the end of the day," Dare said.
"Whether that's November 26, two years from now or even later, I'm going to do this in the end, I think."
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