Star Lion Charlie back to where it all began
Brisbane Lions superstar Charlie Cameron’s AFL career will come full circle on Sunday night at Cazalys Stadium.
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Lions superstar Charlie Cameron’s career will come full circle on Sunday night.
The All-Australian small forward is leading his club towards another deep finals run in 2020 and on Sunday evening, he will have 50 friends and family cheering him on at FNQ’s premier venue.
Following the Lions’ Q-Clash win over Gold Coast on Wednesday evening, the 26-year-old Cameron requested 50 tickets for Sunday’s game against the Sydney Swans.
The livewire goal-kicker has links to several areas around Australia.
Born in Mount Isa, he attended primary school on Mornington Island before living in Newman and Brisbane, eventually entering the AFL with the Adelaide Crows.
But, it is in FNQ where his elite football journey first began, over a decade before he became one of the most dangerous attacking weapons in the AFL.
Cameron represented the Cape York Crusaders program in the under-14 Queensland country championships, played in Townsville, in what AFL Cape York staff believe was his first foray into representative football.
AFL Cape York House Manager Rick Hanlon this week said that they lost contact with Cameron as he moved away for boarding school.
“Because we had him so long ago and he was only 13 at the time, we completely lost all contact and he popped up a few years later,” Hanlon said.
“Even when he was at Adelaide, we were unsure of his background, before my son Josh was going through some old stuff and realised Charlie was a Crusader.
“I can remember him going to that carnival, he was a tiny little thing, he got knocked of the ball and stuff like that — he certainly has changed that a bit since.
“That would have certainly been his first representative level football because we have never had a Gulf kid in our primary school level stuff, his first actual foray into a higher level of football.”
In that same under-14s Crusaders team was Javid Bowen, who went on to play 36 games for the North Queensland Cowboys.
“Although I haven’t been up to Mt Isa and Cairns in the last few years, the region has such a special place in my heart,” Cameron said.
“I want to be a good role model for everyone up there and hope more start playing Aussie rules football like me.”
AFL draft guru Noel Judkins said Cameron had taken his game to a new level since he left the Crows at the end of the 2017 season.
“Maybe it is just the style of play, or perhaps he has more confidence in his own ability now, but his consistency has just improved out of sight,” Judkins said.
“Receiving more opportunities and chances than he did at Adelaide, he has just grown every year.”
Cameron’s brilliance inspired students at AFL Cape York House every week, Hanlon said.
The Portsmith-based house has gone close to producing an AFL footballer over the past few years but has not been able to land one since Rex Liddy was on the Gold Coast Suns list. Fitzroy Greenwood and Timakoi Bowie have played regular NEAFL footy and had sniffs from elite clubs but are back playing in FNQ this year.
When they cross paths, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will often playfully get stuck into Hanlon about why they are not producing more AFL players.
These days, he can now point to Cameron, and say there is more to come.
“We can use this now, we have had Rex come out of the Cape, and I think we are not far away from getting another drafted,” Hanlon said.
“There is going to be a kid pop up soon and going to want to do it, have the desire to do it.
“We are yet to find a kid with the entire package, we have had the kids with the talent, but not the drive to play in the AFL, and vice versa as well.
“Every year, we have the talent for kids to make the AFL, but we need the entire package, the drive, the want and everything else that comes with that, hard work and commitment.
“It is only a matter time before another kid from the Cape or Torres Strait plays in the AFL.”
Originally published as Star Lion Charlie back to where it all began