New Crow Harry Schoenberg realises AFL dream – and briefly thought he would be playing alongside his great mate Will Gould
Housemates Harry Schoenberg and Will Gould thought they may be starting their AFL careers together at Adelaide - instead, only one landed at the Crows, and the other was drafted to the Swans.
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For a few minutes, housemates Harry Schoenberg and Will Gould thought they might continue to be joined at the hip.
When the Crows pounced on big-bodied SA under-18s MVP Schoenberg with their second selection (No. 24 overall) at the national draft and were on the clock with their third at 25, the pair – watching the draft together at their Torrensville home with their families –
began to think they could be AFL teammates.
“That looked a chance,’’ Schoenberg said.
“I’ve been with Gouldy a fair bit, in Year 11 and 12 at PAC (Prince Alfred College), and I was starting to get excited that he might also have been going to the Crows.
“I think he was thinking that as well at that point, but he also knew that Sydney was pretty interested in him – and that’s how it panned out.’’
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Adelaide had been one of Glenelg league premiership defender and SA under-18 captain Gould’s keenest suitors, but it traded its No. 25 pick to the Swans to move two spots further back while landing a future third-round pick for a future fourth-rounder.
After making an unsuccessful bid on Port Adelaide father-son prospect Jackson Mead, the Swans – the club that most questioned Gould’s fitness at the draft combine – picked him at 27.
The Crows then pounced on athletic Victorian tall Josh Worrell, a draft drifter who had been expected to go in the first round.
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While Gould will fly to Sydney on Sunday and has been told he will be picked up at the airport by superstar forward Lance Franklin, Schoenberg walked into Adelaide’s West Lakes headquarters on Friday with new coach Matthew Nicks.
“I was a bit nervous coming in, but he’s very welcoming and made me feel very confident,’’ Schoenberg, 18, said.
Crows national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie gushed about snaring Schoenberg with a second-round pick, saying, “we loved Harry from a long way out’’.
“We had to get Harry in, we loved him as a midfielder with his ability to explode out of stoppage, he was a massive plus for us,’’ Ogilvie said.
“He’s a lot of what we needed and a lot of what we liked. His contested ball and his ball take’s really clean.
“He’s a great country lad from a good family, a ripper kid, so to get South Australia’s best (under-18) mid was a really big win for us.’’
Schoenberg, a sheep farmer’s son from Marrabel in the state’s mid north, had to fight hard to put his name so high on the Crows’ draft board after missing selection in the initial SA Academy squad at the end of last year.
He put his head down, went to work, made the SA under-18 team for the national championships and earnt team MVP honours and All-Australian selection, averaging 27 disposals and six clearances at the carnival.
The colours look 👌👌 #weflyasone pic.twitter.com/VKzff07YLd
— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) November 29, 2019
Schoenberg, who grew up barracking for Hawthorn and idolising premiership skipper Luke Hodge, described his omission from the SA Academy Hub, while painful at the time, as the making of him.
“It’s the best thing that’s happened in my footy career,’’ he said.
“I made a whole lot of state teams, going from under-12s to under-14s and under-16s and basically made them rely on my talent, not hard work.
“So not making the Hub made me reassess where I was at, and realised I had a bit of work to do.
“I put in the hard work this year and I guess you get reward from hard work.’’
The 182cm Schoenberg’s style has been compared to Saint-turned-Cat Jack Steven, but he believes he plays a bit like new teammate Brad Crouch.