Conrad Hudghton has ridden an emotional roller-coaster through the first half of the season. In the selection stakes and on the scoreboard he’s experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
He’s been in and out of the Australia Post Queensland U18 Scorpions squad, and had a couple of good wins as a Brisbane Lions top-up player offset by more than a couple of not so good losses with the Western Magpies.
This week, happily, he’s been on a double ‘up’.
He was recalled to the Scorpions squad for the last two games of the NAB Australian U18 Championships in Melbourne, and, after a strong QAFL performance in a beaten Magpies side against Broadbeach last Saturday, won the round 10 nomination for the NAB QAFL Rising Star Award.
It was, according to Magpies coach Jarrod Thorpe, a thoroughly well-deserved reward for a player he rates one of the most exciting young talents in the Magpies nest.
“He is a quality individual and an absolute pleasure to coach because he is always willing to listen, learn and carry out his role each week,” said Thorpe.
“He shows football maturity well above his age, he has an exceptional attitude to his football and is hungry to learn and develop his game.
“He runs well, has good disposal and has a great football brain,” said Thorpe.
“If any AFL club is not seriously looking at him I would be extremely surprised,” he said.
The Hudghton rollercoaster ride of 2010 started pre-season when he was included in the preliminary Scorpions squad, and elevated on 1 April when he made his QAFL State League debut for the Brisbane Lions reserves in the curtain-raiser to the Lions’ Easter Thursday AFL clash with Carlton.
His first QAFL game came 13 and a half years after brother Max’s last QAFL game in the 1996 grand final, when he played a key role for West Brisbane in their win over Mt.Gravatt to confirm his subsequent selection by St.Kilda.
It was a good beginning - the Lions got over the Vultures by 47 points.
The following week, making his senior debut for the Magpies, he copped a 112-point hiding from Labrador, but this was followed by an eight-point win over the Greater Western Sydney team in his first outing for the Scorpions in Sydney.
Then came back-to-back Magpies losses by 30 points and 187 points to Redland and the Lions, which were followed by a recall to the Lions side. Round 5 produced a 42-point loss to Labrador before a welcome four-point win over Redland in Round 6.
Since then, having been dropped from the Scorpions squad for the first three official games of the Australian U18 Championships, he’s been a senior regular with the Magpies.
And while they’ve had four more losses there was plenty to be satisfied about when they ran the Lions to 19 points in Round 8 – a 168-point improvement in four weeks. And in a beaten side he’s been a consistently good contributor.
A quick running defender with good endurance who can also operate through the midfield, Hudghton has been a valuable asset reading the game off half back lately and has been used at times in a tagging role by coach Thorpe to good effect.
Thorpe rated highly the 18-year-old’s job on Lions international scholar Donald Barry in Round 8, and says his job on Broadbeach’s Gold Coast signing Liam Patrick last weekend was ‘excellent’.
That was Saturday. On Sunday came news of his Scorpions squad recall for games four and five of the championships against Victorian Country at Visy Park on Saturday (26 June) and Northern Territory at Etihad Stadium (Wednesday, 30 June).
But Hudghton, a graduate of Kenmore South State School and Brisbane Boys College and a product of the Kenmore Bears, is not just a promising footballer. He was also a former top-level junior volleyball player, and is now doing an arts degree at the Ipswich campus of the University of Queensland.
Magpies action photo courtesy Brett McDonald BGM Images.
Last Modified on 29/06/2010 10:38