On the Rise: Making the step up to the Seniors

In Auskick everyone gets a game, everyone gets a touch. It is a gentle introduction to what can be a harsh sport of which to be part. Life is not so certain when you move up through the ranks and by the time you are looking at the big league, it is a real struggle to make your mark and hold your spot. With each division a player rises through, the transition to the next level is made harder simply by the fact that there are less spots available, more people vying for few key positions, and the hardest move in AFL is stepping up from Reserves to Seniors, from VFL to AFL, from the minor league to the real deal.

There are plenty of great players who may never play in at AFL level. There are plenty more who will only ever play ten games, if that. So just what is it that makes a player ready to step up and, once there, able to keep their spot? Is it just down to that X factor? Is it a combination of skills and attitude that combine to make the player worthy? Is it the team they play for? Is it potluck?

In reality, it is all of those things. You will hear player’s talk of their debut in the Seniors and you will realise that it is not just one aspect that gave them that opportunity. At the new clubs, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, the opportunity is much easier to come by, as there are fewer established players. The same can be said for teams with young lists. As the teams become more stable the opportunity to break through becomes increasingly rare. This is where luck plays a huge role.

Players waiting in the wings of the big league often need to rely on luck to make their debut, whether this is good luck or bad luck depends on who you are. For the Senior player is almost certainly bad luck. They must relinquish their place in the team due to injury or suspension, sometimes even due to off-field drama. For the Reserve Grade player it seems as though lady luck is smiling on them but making the team does not mean the hard work stops. If you rest on you laurels then you are going to lose your place just as quickly as you gained it.

Making that step up to AFL level is something that every player must go though. No one just magically appears in a senior list, even though sometimes it might feel like that from the sidelines. There are those players who make their debut without fanfare. There are others which come in surrounded by all the hype the media outlets can muster. Regardless of this entrance, the path is the same. The on field performance from that debut will set the tone for the rest of their immediate playing future.

If we look at a couple of recent debutants, and one not so recent debutants, from the Sydney Swans in particular, we can see how performance in the reserves is not always an indicator for success in the seniors and how hard it is to maintain your place once you gain selection.

Sydney is one of the most stable teams in the league. This is evident from the number of 100, 200 and 300 game players in the side and from the low number of total players used in a given season. It prides itself on maintaining a core of players who work well together and follow the old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". This makes gaining selection for the reserves players very difficult. They really need to show something extra special in their reserve grade games to even be considered. The success of a senior side can have a two-fold effect. It can lift the reserve grade players as they know that a higher standard is being set. It can also lift the senior team as they don't want to lose their place in the team to these up and coming players. The depth this creates can be terrific. Having multiple back ups for almost every key position and having game plans which don't rely solely on individual players makes for a strong team, and a strong team makes for some interesting and spectacular debuts.

 Photo Courtesy of Matthew G Moses

Dane Rampe is Sydney born and bred. He is not a traditional footballer. He had a background in basketball and soccer before swapping to AFL. A move to Victoria for play in the VFL and a trial with the Western bulldogs did not pan out for the young player but when he moved back to Sydney, the team he loved saw something in him. He played in the Swans reserves during 2012 and impressed the coaching staff with his maturity, both of mind and of play, but there was also something else that impressed them. Athletic ability - being able to kick, handball, mark, tackle and run - will only get you so far. What the Sydney selectors were looking for wasn't simply a good footballer. These are a dime a dozen. They were looking for a particular attitude to suit a particular culture.

The culture at Sydney is well documented. It is about the team first and foremost, and being a team player is something the Swans strive to achieve in all their players, whether they are debutants or 300-game Brownlow Medallists. Rampe showed in his time in the Reserves that he had this attitude. He put in the hard yards physically yet he was able to draw from deep inside a tenacity that shone through and a cohesiveness with his fellow players that instilled confidence in his teammates and his coaches. While natural talent got his foot in the door, hard work has given him a key; and while luck may have played a part in opening up a spot in the Seniors, it was having that something special that has kept Rampe in his position for the majority of this season.

Photo Courtesy of Matthew G Moses

Another debutant, Tom Mitchell, came to the Swans in completely different manner. Being drafted under the father-son rule can add significant pressure to a young player. For some it can overwhelm them and they fade into obscurity. For others, like Mitchell, their debut is nothing short of spectacular. Indeed, Mitchell came away with 18 disposals, 6 tackles, 3 goal assists and a goal of his own in his first senior game, but backing up after a breakout game such as that can also be tough. Not if you're Tom Mitchell, it seems. His second game earned him a Rising Star nomination. Perhaps the Bloods culture is more than skin deep. Perhaps it courses through the veins of the players and is handed down from one generation to the next. Perhaps it is simply knowing what is expected well in advance and not being afraid to live up to that lofty expectation.

Mitchell's debut was not without its challenges. An injury plagued 2012 meant a prolonged stint in the Reserves before making his debut. Even then, he began as the sub, not an uncommon way to make a debut since its inception. Normally a sub would look to play a quarter, maybe a half of footy. Luck stepped in and Mitchell took to the field for nearly three quarters on debut after an unlucky Tommy Walsh went down with a torn hamstring. Had he not been on the field for such a protracted amount of time, perhaps his debut would not have been as spectacular as it was, but football is all about taking opportunities when they are presented to you and if a player wants to stay in the Senior side, they have to prove they deserve to be there by fitting in seamlessly with the established players while still making their own mark. It is a balancing act that can pay awesome dividends when the players get it right.

The path to the top is never easy, no matter how it might seem from the outside looking in, and for some players it comes harder than others. There are players who show such promise yet never quite live up to the expectation placed on their shoulders. There are others who just need a little more nurturing. Ever sat on the sidelines, watched your team, and wondered, "why do they keeping picking him, he's terrible?" That's the player. The player who has that dreaded P word - potential. There are plenty of them in the AFL. Sydney's own Jesse White is probably one of the best examples.

Photo Courtesy of Matthew G Moses

 

White made his debut in 2008. Since then he has played 62 games for the Swans at a senior level but, until this year, seemed unable to replicate the spectacular form he has displayed in the Reserves despite earning the clubs Rising Star award in 2009. White became known as a fringe player: better than the average reserve grade player yet somehow not quite cutting it with the seniors. Flashes here and there whet the appetite but how long can a senior career be sustained by glimpses of brilliance? Jesse's talent was always there, it was just a matter of unearthing it. An unsuccessful trade to Adelaide may have been the catalyst for him. Whether the improvement would have happened regardless is pure conjecture though there are many who would say this is the case. The faith of the senior staff has paid off and White is playing some of the best football of his career.

In the end, there is no hard and fast rule, no defined path to follow, when making the move from reserve grade to seniors. Jed Lamb credits a trip to Burma with giving him a new perspective on life. Tom Mitchell says that working together with the coaches and having a strong knowledge of positional work is vital. Dane Rampe thinks that building relationships with your teammates is one of the keys. What comes through, when talking to the young players at the Swans is that, while their debut is a proud moment in their football career, the result of the game is about the team, they play for the team and win for the team, and their debut is celebrated by the team.

Maybe that is the ultimate factor in the success of any player: being welcomed into the team, as a friend and colleague, by the established players and staff. A team that works for each other, celebrates the milestones together, holds it's debutants and it's veterans to the same exacting standard and creates an atmosphere of reward for effort not only creates successful top tier players, it creates successful people.

Whatever the reason for great players, whatever tips them over the edge into superstardom, whatever challenges they overcome - there is something special about AFL players at a senior level. The tempo of the game rises. The media frenzy steps up a notch. The expectations increase exponentially. All that hard work; all that dedication; all that self-belief. When all of it has been put to the test and when all of it is still there, better than ever, that's when the magic happens and that's when those debutants become part of the fabric of a club.