Humble beginnings GARRY LYON
April 24, 2010 TWO of my colleagues arrived at work recently and recounted stories involving their young football-loving children that got me thinking about the fickle nature of "football fate".
One of the dads bounded in to the office hardly able to contain his delight at the weekend's events. He had taken his six-year-old daughter along to the Melbourne-Adelaide game and he could barely hold back the tears of joy as she belted out the Demons theme song at the final siren for the first time in her young, football-following life. Until then, attending games, losing and driving home with a sullen father was her only experience.
The other dad listened to the story with a wry smile. For his son, too, had a foreign football experience on the very same weekend. This six-year-old was a dyed-in-the-wool Geelong supporter, and having just watched his Cats go down to the Dockers in the dying moments of the game, he stood transfixed and indignant in front of the television, unable to comprehend what had just happened. For him, attending games, winning and driving home with an overjoyed father was his only football experience.
The difference with kids and AFL footballers is that the kids, generally, get to choose the team they barrack for. Sure, there will be pressure, both subtle and more pointed, from the adults in their young lives, as well as their peers, but all in all, if their team sucks, they can change. It might be frowned upon as un-Australian, but it might also beat the prospect of getting teased every Monday morning at school.
The players get no say in it at all. They go where they are told. And it is here that fate comes in to it.
At the grand old age of 20, with just 29 senior games and three goals to his name, Trent Cotchin was handed the unenviable task of captaining the 16th-placed Tigers against Melbourne last weekend. This, just six days after the club had suspended four of its players, including Ben Cousins and two of their more experienced performers, after an unruly 3am incident in a Sydney hotel after a 10-goal defeat.
It was one of the more remarkable stories that came out of the weekend, but it went largely unnoticed. At a time when the Tigers were arguably at their lowest point in recent memory, on the back of three massive beltings, they turned to a man barely 20 years old to lead them into battle.
This should not be seen as a "knock" on Cotchin. I think he's a beauty and will one day assume the position full-time. That he has recently committed long-term to the club, despite reportedly being at the top of the Gold Coast recruiting list, speaks volumes for the character of the young man, and in time he should take his place among football's midfield elite.
But, surely, he could be excused for thinking, in the quiet times, how different things may be had he not found himself as the Tigers' No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft.
One pick earlier and he would now find himself running around with the Blues, with the wonderful, carefree, wide-eyed optimism that every young 20-year-old recruit should be experiencing. Rather than be bundled with the burden of leading his own struggling side, he could look across the dressing room at one of the game's greats, Chris Judd, safe and secure in the knowledge that his major responsibility, as a young man with less than 30 games to his name, was to still work through the challenges and vagaries of the game.
Had Cotchin lasted another three picks, he may have found himself at the Western Bulldogs, where he would fit seamlessly into a midfield of Boyd, Cross, Griffen, Akermanis and Higgins. With Brad Johnson having the captaincy sorted out, Cotchin would benefit enormously by being part of a seasoned and experienced midfield group which has demonstrated a strong desire to both carry, and share the workload. Finals football would be very much on the agenda, and a date with the last day in September (or early October!) would not be out of the question.
What a far cry from the state of play at Punt Road at the moment.
Pleasingly for Tigers supporters, players are more often than not prepared to deal with the hand that is dealt them, and for that they are to be congratulated and commended. But, occasionally, circumstances will conspire that leads to players changing clubs. And given that I was thinking about the role that fate has in determining the direction a player's career may take, in this case Cotchin's, I was also drawn to the example of one of his former teammates.
Andrew Raines played the last 10 games of the 2009 season with Richmond's VFL affiliate Coburg. He couldn't break into a Richmond team that lost seven of those 10 games by an average margin of 51 points.
Raines has played every game with the undefeated Brisbane Lions this year off half-back, and seems to be very much in Michael Voss' plans going forward. As the Tigers glumly eye off a possible wooden spoon, Raines is looking to September action.
Six clubs had the chance to draft Joel Selwood back in the 2006 draft. The reason he didn't end up at Carlton, Essendon, North Melbourne, Brisbane Lions, Port Adelaide or Hawthorn was based purely on a matter of opinion. There was no right or wrong about it at the time. It was just fate. Or luck. Call it what you like.
The fact that he has played 74 games for 64 wins and two premierships would suggest that the football gods were smiling on both Selwood, and Geelong on that day back in November 2006.
Tom Scully and Jack Trengove have received plenty of plaudits in their first four games of AFL football, and rightly so, for they have acquitted themselves very well. The fact that they have arrived at Melbourne at a time when the Demons have enjoyed their best start to a season for many years means they come under notice more often. Their team is displaying signs of relevance again.
But what about Dustin Martin, the next player picked up in the draft by the Tigers? He sits in fourth position on the clearances table. For the whole competition, not just Richmond, one ahead of names such as Ablett, Watson and Cooney. He is eighth for hard-ball gets, one ahead of Luke Hodge and two ahead of Lenny Hayes.
After an initial flurry of interest, not much has been heard of Martin. Those results are magnificent for a first-year player. Had he been playing elsewhere, one suspect's comparisons to a young Joel Selwood would be regularly made.
The fact is Cotchin and Martin are going to have to earn their reputations in a much tougher environment than 90 per cent of the footballers in the competition. They will not have the luxury of flying under the radar; of benefiting from teammates who attract most of the opposition attention; of fattening their statistics in the process of massacring an opposition; of taking some liberties and occasionally sneaking ahead of the footy in the knowledge that their mates will win the ball; of luxuriating in an environment such as the one that exists at Geelong right now, where sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of the opposition starts before a ball is bounced.
No, fate says they will have to work for everything they get in football in the coming years. It is the ultimate challenge in football. Not really knowing where your next win is coming from, but persevering nonetheless, never compromising your standards in the face of such adversity.
For the reality is, they don't get to choose their football club. The football club chooses them, and that can sometimes be a harsh reality to deal with.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/humble-beginnings-20100423-tjh2.html
