Football is so much about opportunity. So often one person’s mis-fortune will be someone else’s fortune. Just as it is exactly at Aspley this year with Brendan Colch.
The lanky 20-year-old started the season playing back flank or back pocket in the Reserves. It was only in Round 2 that he played his first game at fullback in the Reserves.
Yet now, seven games and eight weeks on, he is firmly entrenched in the defensive goalsquare and, according to coach Russell Evans, showing no signs of surrendering his post.
And all because Tyson Hartwag, a boom Hornets recruit last year who played every game in 2010 and finished sixth in the club Best & Fairest, was ruled out for the rest of the 2011 season with injury after Round 2.
Colch, who played Round 2 and Rounds 10-11-12-13 in the Aspley seniors last year in between commitments with the Australia Post Queensland U18 side, was named Aspley’s best player in his first senior game of this year against the Gold Coast Suns Reserves.
After three more solid games settling into his new role he was named third-best in Round 8 against Morningside, and was named his side’s best against Broadbeach and Mt.Gravatt the last two weeks.
So consistent has he been and so good was he last week that he is the Round 10 nomination for the NAB NEAFL Rising Star Award (Northern Conference).
Coach Evans is an unashamed Colch fan, likening him to Essendon fullback Dustin Fletcher.
Not that Evans is suggesting the former Kedron and Sandgate player is about to replicate the feats of the Essendon champion, but he does see a striking physical resemblance.
“He’s got those same Inspector Gadget arms,” Evans said pointedly. “He can reach things that a lot of other players cannot reach which is a definite advantage.”
It’s a glowing tribute for a player who stands 192cm but weighs not much more than 80kg.
“He’s built like a rake – he’s a total lanky type who looks a bit underweight,” said Evans.
“But he’s been absolutely fantastic for us and as much as we were disappointed when Tyson (Hartwig) went down we haven’t lost anything at all because Brendan has been so good.
“Since he came into the side he’s at least broken even with if not beaten the best full forwards in the competition.
“He’s quite disciplined in the way he plays, and he’s got great skills. He rarely misses a target with foot and hand, and although he’s a bit of a loper he’s got good pace. He can chase blokes down even though he doesn’t look like he running fast.
“And he’s got an excellent attitude. He’s always willing to listen and learn, and he does whatever you ask him to do without question. He’s very balanced in his outlook.
“Some blokes will want to rationalize everything you tell them but he just listens and tries to make the necessary adjustment and do whatever you ask him to do.
“He’s very cool under pressure – he doesn’t panic – and I think he’s learning a lot from having a bloke like Robbie Copeland playing out in front of him at centre half back. You can see a lot of Robbie coming out in Brendan.”
And all that despite the fact that Colch is still searching for full fitness.
Having played in the State U18 side as an over-age player in 2010 after a string of niggling injuries in 2009, he was struck down with glandular fever in the lead-up to 2011 and has had repeat bouts of illness this year.
“He just gets sick a lot,” said Evans, simplifying a frustrating situation. “If there’s a flu around he gets it. He hasn’t really trained for the last couple of weeks – he just rugs up during the week and plays on weekends.
“As good as he’s been, we can see an even bigger up side in him when he’s able to get out on the track and train at full intensity.”
Colch, a product of Holy Cross Primary School at Wooloowin and Sandgate High School, started football as a six-year-old at Kedron and has played ever since.
A standout Northern Raiders junior, he won the Sandgate Rising Star Award and a spot in the Northern Raiders Team of the Year in 2009 before winning his first Queensland jumper last year.
While the absence of an interstate U21 fixture this year has denied him an opportunity to add another quite attainable line to his growing CV he’s building a solid platform for a very solid career at Graham Road.
Colch is the second Aspley played nominated for the NEAFL Rising Star Award this year behind former State U18 teammate Michael Hutchinson.
He also joins NT Thunder’s Jed Anderson and Ross Tangatalum, Broadbeach’s Kallen Geary and Luke Shreeve, Mt.Gravatt’s Nathan Reid, Brisbane Lions’ Richard Newell, and Redland’s Trent Manzone and Alex Sexton, who was nominated after playing for the Gold Coast Suns.
Last Modified on 12/06/2011 21:54