Norwood midfielder Matt Panos aiming for another shot at the AFL

NORWOOD’S Matt Panos is hoping for a second crack at the AFL now that he’s reinvented himself as a big-bodied midfielder.

6/8/14. The Norwood Football Club's Matt Panos - 23yrs (Joslin) is hoping to get a second chance in the AFL after being invited to the state draft combine. Pic Keryn Stevens

NORWOOD footballer Matt Panos grew up modelling his game on Nick Riewoldt.

Now Panos, 23, is hoping to get a second crack at the AFL after re-emerging in the Scott Pendlebury mould.

Nine months after his conversion from key forward to big-bodied midfielder, the former Western Bulldog has been invited to the AFL draft state combine at Wayville in October.

“It’s obviously different to playing forward – there’s a lot of running and you’ve got to be accountable for your man going into stoppages – but I’ve been loving it,” says Panos who, like Pendlebury, is 191cm and 90kg.

“(Nat) Fyfe, Pendlebury and (Josh) Kennedy are the three midfielders I watch the most ... and try to pick up a few things off to bring into my game.”

Panos, of Joslin, was full forward in the under-18 All Australian team in 2009 and spent the next three years as a forward at the Bulldogs.

When he returned to Norwood at the end of 2012, it was as a key forward.

He moved into the midfield after a pre-season chat with new coach Ben Warren and assistant Scott Bassett.

It followed the Redlegs losing Brett Zorzi to retirement, Mat Suckling to Collingwood’s VFL side and Matt Thomas to Richmond.

Panos has been named in Norwood’s best in 10 of his 14 games this season to emerge as one of the Magarey Medal favourites.

“They just wanted a bigger body in the midfield and thought that it might suit me.

“I did a bit of research online trying to pick up things like running patterns, the things you need to do to be a good midfielder ... and getting as much information as I could from the coaches.”

If he is redrafted – the Bulldogs took him at number 48 in the 2009 rookie draft – Panos will join a long line of players, including Paul Puopolo, Matthew Fuller and Tom Jonas, who have gone from Norwood to the AFL as mature-age recruits in recent years.

Panos, cut by the Bulldogs at the end of 2012 without playing a game, vows to make the most of a second chance at the elite level, if it comes.

Before then he hopes to play in a Redlegs premiership after missing last year’s grand final with a hamstring injury.

“Spending three years with the Bulldogs was a great learning curve.

“I’m a lot wiser and I think having that experience will put me in good stead.”