Case for the defence
Emma Quayle | August 16, 2008 - 8:42PM
RICHMOND'S three young key defenders are leaning against a Punt Road fence, readying themselves for a photo shoot. They have only just wandered off the training track and Will Thursfield has a dilemma: keep his cap on, or show the world his hat hair?
The hat wins out, after some unsuccessful ruffling, but his teammates can't believe him. "What are you so worried about?" laughs Luke McGuane, already in position with Kelvin Moore beside him. "You're sitting beside two redheads."
Today, Richmond plays Hawthorn, which means that between them, Thursfield, Moore and McGuane must keep Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin, zooming towards 100 goals, under some sort of control. It means the task of containing the pair of in-form, top-five draft picks will fall to two former rookies and a Queenslander, but Thursfield, Moore and McGuane are the young, athletic and competitive face of the new Richmond back line, and are unperturbed.
"You get a lot of credit from the football world if you can shut down the best forwards, so it's not something to be frightened of. It shouldn't be a negative thing," says Moore, who kept Franklin to a single goal (and seven behinds) when the teams last met, three-and-a-bit months ago.
"To get his scalp would be one of the bests thing you could do. Everyone expects him to kick eight goals, so if you can limit him, then it's a chance to get some credit - from your teammates and from the world. I'd love another go at it."
He has some competition. "I think we'd all like it, just for the challenge," says McGuane, and Thursfield agrees. "When you play as a defender," he says, "you've got to want to play on good players. If you don't, you probably shouldn't be there."
And if things turn bad, there's always a way out. "If Buddy's on 99 goals, I might just say, 'Hey Will . . . let's swap it up for a bit . . ." laughs Moore. "I'll hand him over for one goal and then go back to him when it's all over."
Thursfield, Moore and McGuane have been Tigers together for a few seasons now, and know each other well. They speak of Thursfield's penchant for making prank calls - "the devious ones," explains McGuane, "using other people's mobile phones" - of how Moore's Staffordshire terrier has romantic intentions for McGuane's puppy, another Staffy, and of how McGuane spends his loose change.
The 21-year-old has a 1000-litre fish tank set upin his living room. It houses, among other things, a shark, a stingray and several "nasty" fish. "They have to be nasty so they don't get eaten," he says. The tank has a coral reef on the bottom, and is filled with salt water. "We're going to start doing recovery in it," says Moore. "And I'm going to start fishing in it," adds Thursfield, a keen fisherman who is already thinking up good holiday spots for this off-season.
On the field, the three are learning more, too - about themselves, as each finds his way, but also about each other, and how they fit together. Their plan is to get what Geelong has - a tight and trusting "team within a team" that is in total tune and can make opposition forward lines very worried.
They have met at the end of unconventional paths. Thursfield, who lived in England until he was five, ruptured a knee in the first round of 2006 - just after being promoted from the rookie list - and had to wait another year to find out what that small piece of promise he had both felt and shown might amount to.
Moore spent a season on the rookie list, too, and will never ever forget it. "It's a really hard thing to do, because you're working so hard, you're trying to train harder than all the other guys and you're getting paid about 10 bucks a week," he says. "It's mentally challenging, as well. You put your life on hold for a year just to try and make it, and you might be without a job in 12 months.
"It's very hard like that and you feel like everything you're doing, you're being judged on. It's like every moment in that one season could affect your future career. I think it's important to remember going through all that, to not take anything for granted."
Of the three, McGuane has the thickest footballing blood. Mick McGuane, the former Collingwood wingman, is his cousin, but Luke grew up on the Gold Coast and, while always intent on playing in the AFL, wasn't sure recruiters looked up there until Nick Riewoldt became the No. 1 draft pick in 2000.
He had year 12 to get through when he first moved down, which meant spending his spare time in class with fellow draftees Brett Deledio and Richard Tambling. "We had a tutor come in two times a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays. We ended up changing it to just Tuesdays," he laughs. "I had a broken arm, so it gave me something to focus on outside of footy and it was good because the teacher had to do all my writing. But it took me some time to adjust and settle in, for sure. I was catching trains to training when I first moved down; I didn't have my licence at first, and I wasn't really sure what I was doing."
McGuane played the last seven games of 2007 - 14 in total - but was stricken by osteitis pubis throughout the pre-season and didn't get to prepare much at all. He made the team this year in round four and has played in all but a couple of games since, not feeling at his strongest but learning how to play well when things aren't perfect.
"I've found it pretty tough. That was the first time I've ever missed pre-season and I'm only starting to come into peak fitness now. I've had to learn how to make do with the fitness I've had and do my best to keep up," he says.
"That's a good thing to learn though. I was speaking to David King (Richmond's defensive coach) a while back, and he said they didn't expect me to play as much senior footy as I have this year. Hopefully next year I can get a full pre-season under my belt and play the full 22 games and feel a lot better out there. It will be good to see how I can play when I do feel like I'm really fit, when I don't have that question mark."
Moore has answered some queries this year, too. He had spent four years at Richmond before this season, playing nine games off the rookie list in 2004, but only 15 in the next three years. Why? Injury, and some doubt as to whether he belonged. In some games, truth be told, he didn't really want the ball in his hands. "If you don't have the ball," he explains, "then you can't make any mistakes with it."
This year, he made the side in round one after his best, most committed, summer yet. He has held his spot all year and has wanted as much of the ball as possible. "I know a bit more about what my body can do now; I'm not worried about being injured all the time," he says.
"But you do start to doubt yourself when you've been around a while. I'd been here four years and when you've only played a handful of games, you do start to think, 'Where am I going? Am I good enough?'
"But as soon as you start playing a few games in a row, that changes a bit. You think, 'Well, the coaches must believe I should be out here, so maybe I should too.' You almost take the shackles off and just go out and play."
Moore's teammates have noticed the change in him. "He's a whole lot more confident, I reckon," says McGuane. "He's more confident around the club in general, but also on the field he wants the ball a lot more. He used to show that in the VFL last year and we all knew he could play a great game, but he couldn't bring that confidence into the AFL. Now that he has, he's showing us what he can do."
Adds Thursfield: "He's got the belief to go for marks and take them now. And not only does he stop guys, he rebounds a lot more as well. He's quick . . . he's strong . . . he's good looking. He's just got the lot, what more can I say."
Moore and Thursfield like playing alongside McGuane because they know he will compete for the ball each time it comes near him. His effort never fluctuates, says Moore, and he is generous, adds Thursfield. "He'll help you out, any time that he can," he says. "I know Lukey will leave his man and come and help out if I need it. It's a great thing to know, that he has your back."
Then there is Thursfield, who laps up playing on the very last line of defence, knowing the consequences of any small error and relishing the pressure that comes with it. "We like having him there, fixing things up if we make a mistake," says Moore. McGuane adds: "He's just so competitive. He doesn't like getting beaten, he hates it, and that's probably the best thing you can have, playing so close to the goals."
Being those things, and doing them together for many more years, is the next step. "We want to try and get a real 'back six'," says Moore. "We want to play the next four, five, six years together and be a bit similar to Geelong, how they seem to just know instinctively how each other plays. It would be good to get that sort of understanding between us, to know each other that well."
There's a little way to go. As the interview wraps up, Chris Newman emerge from the changerooms and asks why he wasn't a part of things. "Tall defenders only, mate," McGuane calls back to him. "189 centimetres and above." But hang on, says the 190-centimetre Moore, "I'm only 188 . . ."
"Really?" asks McGuane, looking him up and down as they head back into the rooms, chattering away. "Nah, there's no way you could be . . ."
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