'SUPERDRAFT". Luke Molan still hears the taunt from over the fence, the reminder of where he once was, of what might have been. It used to grate, but he has learned to let it wash over him. Even to wear it as a badge.
After all, he was part of it, they weren't. "It's my claim to fame."
His tormentors hope the mockery will make Molan's lot even tougher, as if carting a 192-centimetre frame that's far more broken than a 24-year-old's should be around suburban ovals isn't burden enough. As if he should be punished even more. As if all the misery he's known hasn't been enough.
Plenty has happened to Molan's peers from the top 10 of the 2001 draft. Premierships, Brownlow Medals, trades and traumas. Even a near-death experience, thanks to Graham Polak's run-in with a tram in June. Yet none have been reminded as consistently as Molan just how cruel the hand life deals you can be.
In short, this is what happened next after Molan was drafted by Melbourne at No. 9, seven years ago this week:
■ Moved to Melbourne and was billeted with "an amazing family", the father of which had cancer, and was in remission. The disease returned, and he died a few months later.
■ Broke his leg so badly playing VFL for Sandringham that he finished up kneeling despite the sole of his foot being flat on the ground. Did not play again in the 2002 season.
■ Missed five weeks in early 2003 with a cartilage tear then, mid-season, dived to spoil a mark at North Ballarat. In one lunge, he broke his collarbone, was concussed, and ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament upon hitting the ground. Season over, he was delisted.
■ Melbourne drafted him back as a rookie. He came back through the Sandringham reserves, eventually returned to the seniors, but was cut at the end of 2004.
■ Attended Troy and Trisha Broadbridge's wedding, and was the last Melbourne player to farewell his teammate at night's end. Eight days later, Broadbridge was killed in the Boxing Day tsunami while on his honeymoon.
■ Recruited to Frankston in the VFL, he broke his leg again in a practice match. Was plagued by hamstring injuries upon his return, and could manage no more than four or five games in a row in two seasons.
Molan used to wonder if he was cursed. "For a while I thought I'd done something wrong somewhere." He was bitter, and struggled to watch the other young men with the "Superdraft" tag living their dreams, rather than waking, cold with sweat, in the middle of the night.
Losing Broadbridge, with whom he had shared many long, frustrating days in the detached yet bonding world of footy rehab, made him realise there was much more to life. "It woke me out of my stupor, I suppose. For him to be taken away like that, it totally changes your life."
Molan's life always had a clear destiny. In the family home in Camperdown, there are videos of baby Luke, not yet big enough to walk, so crawling after a football instead. No one knew how often grown-up Luke would be similarly unable to get up and go.
At 16 he was playing for the Geelong Falcons, standing on the roadside as the bus from Warrnambool swept through for Wednesday night training, Brent Moloney among those already on board and Luke Hodge waiting to be collected in Colac. He wouldn't get home until almost 11pm, to a sleeping household, a dinner in the oven, then off to bed.
He was going places, and having a ball.
Geelong and Hawthorn were keen to get him, and Melbourne wanted a chat but the Molans were going to Mildura on a family holiday. He was listening to the radio on draft day, waiting to hear his name called, perhaps in the 20s or 30s. He didn't have to wait that long.
A week later he moved into a Murrumbeena house, and still marvels at the strength of those who lived there. The father "was like the mum of the house. He was always home when I was home. For six months he was like my best mate". He still sees the wife and children; "three kids, three tough kids".
Molan was "almost fit" when he arrived at Melbourne, just getting over a medial ligament strain suffered the week before the TAC Cup finals. By Christmas he was into it "full-on", and settling in well. Fellow new boys Aaron Rogers, Steven Armstrong, Brad Miller and Mark Jamar were his mates; the Demons did not draft a single player from metropolitan Melbourne that year. "I was the closest, and I was three hours away."
He played two Wizard Cup and two practice games — "I think I got a handball and a kick for the whole four games" — went back to Sandy, and found some rhythm. Then, seven or eight rounds in, "it all started to happen".
Playing against Murray Kangaroos, his leg broke horrifically; "the ankle can only bend so far". He returned from Albury on the team bus, leg in plaster.
Still he believed it was all ahead of him, and was ready to go again come the pre-season. A cartilage tear was a setback, but by round nine or 10 the coaches were making positive noises, telling him he was pushing his name forward.
At North Ballarat, playing full-forward and zoning to defend a kick-in, he made that fateful, three-in-one lunge. He's seen video footage, and it actually doesn't look too bad. Initially, a scan cleared him of knee damage, but the doctor sent him to a surgeon to make sure.
"He took one look and asked how bad my shoulder was. I told him it was five to six weeks, and he said, 'It'll be a year. You're having a full knee reconstruction.' "
It was devastating, not least because Molan lived in an apartment on St Kilda Road, and from his balcony could see Melbourne training on the Junction Oval below. A different teammate would wear his No. 14 every day. "They tried to keep me involved, felt sorry for me after what I'd been through."
He says the club was fantastic, rookie-listing him for 2004 so he could start pre-season walking laps of Trevor Barker Oval, bouncing a football, while the fit and able ran 200s in the middle. He was told there could be no rookies the following year for financial reasons, disappointed when the club took two on anyway, but doesn't dwell on it. "That's football."
The footy trip gave him a last hurrah with his mates, and finally, in a pub on the Gold Coast, the chance to say goodbye.
"They do it every year, someone gets up and says a few words about you, then it's your turn."
Darren Jolly, with whom he'd shared a house, stood and said, "I was there when he broke his leg, and I was there when he did his knee." Molan reckons they were the only two games they played together. "The tears start to well up at that stage. It's a tough time."
He soon saw first-hand what having a truly tough time was like. "I was living in Ringwood with my sister and travelling to Frankston to play football. Trish Broadbridge was living in Cheltenham and said I could move in there."
Only months had passed since an unthinkable tragedy, but her strength lifted Molan's spirits. "She's an amazing woman. What she went through and to come out how she has, and do the things she does."
He went to Frankston hoping a change of scenery would change his luck, and maybe, just maybe, an AFL lifeline would be thrown his way. But his body betrayed him again, and the desire left him. He'd had enough.
By now he was living in Newport, and when Spotswood asked what it would take for him to play, he told them money wasn't important. He'd done a personal training course while at Frankston, but had scant experience of the world beyond football medical rooms, and occasionally grounds. "I said, 'I don't care, just find me a job and I'll play.' "
Now he's content, working behind the counter at a plumbing supplies shop, enjoying meeting the plumbers and hearing their stories. In September he played in a second Western Region Football League premiership in a row, ending "an amazing two years".
Spotty trailed Port Colts all day, until a Molan pack mark with three minutes left put them in front. From not knowing a soul when he arrived last season, "now I've got 30 best mates who I've won a flag with, and we'll have that forever". Some old Melbourne teammates have been in touch to tell him it's more than they've got.
His knee is deteriorating, and he needs painkillers and anti-inflammatories to get through, but he'll go around again next year. "I'll play as long as my body lets me, but once it's had enough, it's had enough."
Hopefully, down the track, he'll be up to a farewell season back home, to thank his parents for their support. John Molan played more than 100 games for Camperdown, was president in two premiership years, and mum and dad have driven to Melbourne for every weekend of their son's bedevilled career.
While he's been winning flags for Spotswood, his old Falcons teammates haven't exactly gone wanting. Luke Hodge is a Norm Smith-winning premiership player, Jimmy Bartel got a Brownlow and a flag the year before. Molan has just added him as a Facebook friend, and says they are "great blokes. All the Falcons boys were amazing".
He was one of them then, but never again. "Life goes on mate, life goes on."
Last Modified on 26/11/2008 10:20