Adam Cooney reveals what happened after he was chosen with the No. 1 draft pick
AFTER being chosen with the No.1 pick in the 2003 draft, ADAM COONEY threw a massive party. Then reality hit. EXCLUSIVE COLUMN
Adam Cooney
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WHEN players get drafted there is a huge sense of pride, achievement and relief.
You feel on top of the world, then 48 hours later you pack your bags, fly to a new state by yourself and spend the first night of your new life crying yourself to sleep on the blow-up mattress in the spare room of the club’s player welfare manager. OK, maybe that was just me.
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I’m revealing my embarrassing story here in the hope this year’s draftees can learn something from my mistakes.
I was lucky in a way I didn’t go to the draft camp so I wasn’t subjected to the 3km time-trial or any of Choco Williams’ outrageous questions, as I was still playing finals for West Adelaide at the time.
I was told by the Bulldogs after the under-18 national championships in July that they would take me if they had the No.1 pick, so I had a few months to mentally and physically prepare myself for the huge changes ahead.
But, of course, I thought I was already a superstar and I spent the next two months easing my way through just about every licensed establishment in Adelaide, so I certainly had not prepared myself professionally for the day-to-day rigours of AFL footy. It all just didn’t seem real to me, like it was never going to eventuate.
The AFL flew my family to Melbourne, where my name was read out as the first pick of the 2003 draft to the Dogs.
A day of media followed, where I can be seen wearing the most putrid shell necklace you will ever lay eyes on (I wore it to try to contain my double chin) and a mop of bleached blond hair that still makes me cringe to this day.
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From there we flew home straight to my house for a banger of a pool party. All my mates were there, the Passion Pop and Vodka Cruisers were flowing for the girls, the boys were on the Woodstock 440ml cans, there were even a couple of Red Bears cracked late. One of the boys even made a few mix CDs that played well into the night. I was the man!
Then came time to pack the bags and leave it all forever.
I realised pretty quickly that I wasn’t ready for this commitment. I wanted to stay with my family and friends in Adelaide, get fat and become a tradie. But it was all too late.
The first night in Melbourne was the hardest. I was scared, felt alone and just wanted to go home. I didn’t sleep a wink.
The next morning was day one of pre-season. I didn’t have any runners or boots at that stage so I completed my first few sessions in my K-Swiss white skate shoes. We did a ridiculously pedestrian 8-10 100m efforts to start off with. I got through five or six, vomited and went and hid in the toilet. The staff and players must’ve been looking at each other scratching their heads thinking, ‘Surely this overweight, pale hack wasn’t the best kid in the draft?’ (I was).
From there the next few weeks are a bit of a blur, but I remember phoning Dad on multiple occasions telling him I was quitting and coming home. Dad was over the moon to get rid of me in the first place, so he was very reassuring that I would get through it. His advice was to put my head down, work hard until Christmas, come home and see everyone and reassess from there. I struggled badly from homesickness until footy started.
I was lucky enough to get a spot in the Bulldogs’ Round 1 side in 2004 and played 19 games for the year. Once I got in the groove of playing AFL footy each week, the enjoyment factor kicked in and the homesickness eased.
Eventually I felt I belonged in the AFL system and grew to love the club and players. But it is a huge issue for clubs to monitor players’ wellbeing, particularly those who are fresh out of school and move interstate away from their family and friends.
Looking back on my experience I would have loved someone at the club in the mould of a ‘mother’ type figure to look out for me in my first couple of years. In my first year in Melbourne I lived at Joe and Jen Giansiracusa’s house (Danny’s parents).
The way they looked after me and treated me was amazing. Jen did all my washing, cooked my meals for me and they always invited me to their weekly family dinners.
I look back on my time there and cringe at how unappreciative I was. I didn’t help around the house, never did the dishes and after dinner I would go straight to my room and call my friends in Adelaide. So, to Joe and Jen — thank you for all you did for me and I apologise for being a rude, unappreciative little sh-t, but I was sad and wanted to go home!
I’m sure if I had spoken to Joe and Jen at the time about how I was feeling they would have supported me and made me feel better as they had been through the ups and downs of footy with Daniel already, but I felt uncomfortable opening up to them about it as I was living in their house and didn’t want to offend them.
AFL clubs certainly need to employ more women, particularly in the football departments — ie coaching — but I’m surprised that not many clubs have more women involved in player welfare positions. They are problem solvers and much better listeners then men (in my experience) and would do a terrific job helping young men adapt to what can be a scary new environment, providing a different voice to talk to outside the macho locker room.
To all the players in this year’s draft, good luck, enjoy draft day, have a couple of Woodstock cans to celebrate and then get ready for a big pre-season.
My final piece of advice — don’t be a smart arse to senior players in your first week. It can be a long pre-season if you are.
* This is an edited version of a column that was first published on November 22, 2016
Originally published as Adam Cooney reveals what happened after he was chosen with the No. 1 draft pick
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