By Tom Scully
AFTER all the hype, anticipation and speculation, I can finally say it’s over. My lifelong dream of becoming an AFL footballer is another step closer after I was fortunate enough to be drafted on Thursday night by the Melbourne Football Club.
Like many aspiring young footballers, I have always dreamt of becoming an AFL footballer and now I have the opportunity to fulfil my dream. Football is a game I love, a big part of my life and a lot of hard work and dedication is what has got me to where I am at this point in time.
Growing up I played football because I loved everything about the game – the competitiveness, mateship and self-improvement. It wasn’t until my under-16 year that I realised that I had an opportunity to make it at the highest level.
The last two years of under-18 football have been an enormous stepping stone towards the start of my AFL career. Being involved in programs such as the AIS-AFL academy, Vic Metro under-18s and the Dandenong Stingrays squad gave me the opportunity to maximise my abilities and exposed me to the best under-age competition under the watchful eyes of AFL recruiters.
Not only have these programs developed my on-field performance and skills, they have helped me develop and make improvements as a person and made me realise that there is much more to life than simply playing football.
A great mentor of mine, Alan McConnell, (former) AIS-AFL Academy high performance coach, was a great teacher to young men such as me and I attribute much of who I am today to his influence.
This time 12 months ago, knowing I would be eligible for the draft the following November, I did everything during pre-season to set a good base for me to perform well this year.
From very early in the year members of the media were touting me as a potential top draft pick. For me personally, all this talk was something that made me feel uncomfortable as I prefer to go about my business as low key as possible.
However, I soon realised that if I wanted to play at the highest level, media attention was something that I would have to tolerate.
As the year progressed, I was playing fairly consistent football and the media exposure was intensifying. But for me the speculation and hype surrounding the upcoming the draft was not something I was going to let affect my performances each week, so I soon learnt simply to ignore it. My main focus each week was to play my role within the team structure and strive to improve my game each week.
As the season finally came to an end, virtually all media attention in football was cast on the draft. From my point of view, there was nothing more I could do to prove myself to anyone. Injury had ended my season prematurely and excluded me from testing at the draft camp.
With VCE exams finished, in the days leading up to the draft I and the other young men striving to be drafted faced the most nerve-racking few days in their lives to date. With our futures unknown it was both an exciting and daunting experience.
When draft day finally arrived, I tried to keep things as normal as possible, spending the day with my family. They accompanied me to the draft and it’s fair to say that once we arrived the nerves had kicked in for all of us.
It was fantastic to see teammates and opponents from across Australia have their names called out. As the countdown progressed and the No. 2 pick was announced as Jack Trengove, I realised the dream was going to become a reality. In all honesty it wouldn’t have mattered a bit if I had been the first or last pick in the draft, I am just rapt to be given an opportunity.
I couldn’t be happier than to be drafted by Melbourne. It’s the oldest football club in the history of the game, has such a rich and proud history and many wonderful people involved with the club. I feel very honoured to be given this opportunity and represent such a fantastic club and become part of that history.
Although I’m thrilled to have been drafted, I now realise this is only the beginning and I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
