Lure of AFL spot the catalyst for best year on the park
A FUNNY thing happened at the medal count last Monday.
A hard-working midfielder was denied the league's highest individual award by a few votes after missing several games due to injury.
If you're thinking Geelong's Gary Ablett jnr missing out on the Brownlow Medal, you'd be right. But that same scenario at the same time was being played out across town for North Ballarat midfielder Brett Goodes at the VFL's JJ Liston Medal count.
Goodes has played the best season of his VFL career.
He was named on a half-back flank in the VFL's team of the year and capped off 2008 in the possible way with a 22-point grand final over Port Melbourne. That was the club's first VFL premiership after having failed in 1999 and 2000.
Goodes also wore the Big V in the State game versus South Australia in Adelaide. And he came within a whisker of claiming the league's fairest-and-best award.
A leg injury stopped the younger brother of AFL Sydney Swans star Adam mid-season for a month and he ended the season with 14 umpire's votes, two less than the winner of the JJ Liston Medal.
What could have been had he not been injured will forever remain unknown but what isn't was the spur that got him going for a top year on the park; that is, that AFL club North Melbourne were close to putting him on their rookie list as a mature age recruit last year.
In the end, it was a toss-up between Goodes and another. He didn't get the gig but it was a massive boost to the then 23-year-old.
"I had a good finish to last year in the finals and this pre-season I had was the best I had for a long time," Goodes said.
"I didn't miss a session in the pre-season and it was good just to get fit and have a crack at it and have a good year, then top it off with another good finals campaign.
"All the (pre-season) test results were good, like beep tests, and it put me in good stead for the first nine rounds ... that was the best I've ever played.
"Making the VFL team was a big honour and also a goal of mine. It was good for me and it was reward for all the hard work I've done."
That dream of joining his brother in the AFL remains but it depends upon whether the Kangaroos will still consider Goodes again as a rookie. Under current AFL rules, those who haven't played a senior AFL game can be selected by clubs as mature age rookies.
"It is a bit frustrating sometimes especially when you're playing against AFL-listed players and beating them, you think if you only had those opportunities, too," Goodes said.
"But that's the cards you're dealt with. I've done all that I can do throughout the year and I'll put my hand up (again), the hope is still there."
Outside football, Goodes works with the Victorian State department of sustainability and environment at its Midlands forestry division.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Last Modified on 02/10/2008 00:10