Ahmed Saad certainly isn’t old – he’s only 26 – but his experiences in football and his young new teammates at Coburg are making him feel like an elder statesman of the Peter Jackson VFL.
The former St Kilda goalsneak arrives at the Lions after a rollercoaster last four years. He played 33 games for the Saints in 2012-13 and 2015, missing the 2014 season after being suspended for consuming a banned substance contained in an energy drink.
To Saad, it seems like only yesterday when he was starring for the Northern Blues (then Bullants) in 2011, kicking 50 goals and winning the Fothergill-Round Medal for the VFL’s best player under 23.
“Thinking about it now, it’s all happened pretty quickly from when I first got drafted to being banned to being delisted last year,” Saad said.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself.
“I didn’t have any worries (playing at Northern). I was still living at home, working, studying and still young. There wasn’t a lot of responsibility other than playing footy for the sake of playing footy and trying to get drafted.
“Now there’s a lot more pressure. You grow up and there’s a lot more responsibility. It’s a totally different ball game now than when I started.”
Saad always knew he had the competitiveness and resilience that he required to make a return to the AFL after serving his ban, achieved when the Saints rookie-listed him at the end of 2014.
But his experiences at St Kilda taught him a new skill – how to be a leader. It’s a responsibility the veteran of 61 VFL games now relishes and one he’s already fulfilling for his teammates at Coburg.
“I heard it was a young list and that I could play a role as one of the leaders and try to help out as much as I can by passing on some of my experience,” Saad said. “It just fit what I wanted.
“I care about helping; I want to help people improve.
“This is a great opportunity to help my leadership skills and maybe even help me progress to become a coach later on. If I can help those younger guys or the good players that are close to getting drafted just one or two or three per cent and they can get drafted from that, then I’d get a lot of satisfaction.
“That’s probably the first time I’m speaking this way in terms of being at a footy club.
“I’m only 26 but I think we’ve got 40 or 50 players on the list that are first or second-year players in the VFL system. I’m pretty much going in as one of the older guys and that’s been very rare for me.”
Saad will certainly need to step up, with sizeable holes left at Piranha Park by the departures of seven-year captain Nick Carnell, three-time best and fairest winner Daniel Venditti and midfield stalwart Ben Clifton.
He’s fielding plenty of questions from the young Lion cubs, working closely with 2015 VFL Team of the Year midfielder Ozgur Uysal, last year’s club leading goalkicker Dan Younan and small forward Josh Cauchi.
“They ask a lot of questions,” Saad said. “Every time they need help, they ask.
“I speak to them about how to be a bit more professional and they ask: ‘What steps can we take playing VFL footy to improve so we can take that next step and play AFL?’
“That’s something I can relate to because I got drafted playing in the VFL.”
Saad will likely see Cauchi’s development first-hand in 2016, predicting that he’ll assume his trademark role inside 50 alongside the talented 20-year-old.
Despite midfield time seemingly up for grabs following the departures of Carnell, Venditti and Clifton, Saad said senior coach Peter German saw him primarily as an answer to Coburg’s scoring woes, with the Lions ranked ahead of only Frankston for points scored in 2015.
“They recruited me as a forward because they needed an extra two or three goals a game to be able to match the top eight and make finals,” Saad said.
“I’ll be playing in the forward line, going on the wing a little bit and going inside (the midfield contests) as well... But my strength is definitely as a forward line player.”
Saad holds out hope of returning to the elite level and said he misses being in a professional AFL environment. But for the time being, he’s happy to channel the feeling of those early years at Northern where it all began in 2009.
“Footy can get taken away pretty quickly and I realised that twice,” Saad said. “It got taken away from me with the ban and got taken away by me getting delisted.
“I just mainly want to go out this year and enjoy my footy again. It’s been a long couple of years; I just want to have fun.”
Last Modified on 03/03/2016 17:10
