Port Adelaide novice Kane Farrell learns the AFL dream is much more than he imagined as a football junior
PORT Adelaide speed machine Kane Farrell dreamt of playing in the AFL - but there was no dream that prepared him for a Showdown.
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KANE Farrell is living the dream.
But the dream - no matter how many times the new Port Adelaide speed machine played it out in the park at Castlemaine - is quite different when destiny has your second AFL game unfold in a Showdown.
“When it came to being drafted ... running out to 50-60,000 people was the childhood dream,” said Farrell, the No. 51 pick in last year’s AFL national draft.
Farrell’s second big-league game - Showdown 45, after making his AFL debut in his “backyard” at Ballarat six days earlier - had 50,377 at Adelaide Oval, just as in the dream. He kicked three goals in the first term of the derby.
“No, you can’t dream that,” said Farrell. “And it is still a blur to me.
“I just moved through a lot of guys,” adds Farrell, who has impressed with his speed, “to be at the right spot at the right time.”
Farrell, 19, is the modern AFL player with the old-fashioned themes that are so challenged by the professional era.
He grew up as a Geelong fan, following the family line as his father Stephen and older brother Brodie cheered for the Cats. But when he signed his AFL draft form - after drawing the attention of the recruiting scouts in the TAC Cup under-18 system at Bendigo - he had his bag packed for any of the 18 AFL stations.
“I knew I had to move (to play AFL),” said Farrell. “And I would have gone anywhere. When it was Port Adelaide, I was pretty happy. I was moving to a good club.”
Farrell did come to the AFL with a precise left foot - “a lovely left foot,” says Power development coach Aaron Greaves.
“Dad helped a lot with my kicking skills when we’d have a kick at the oval or park,” said Farrell with words that would lift the heart of AFL great Ron Barassi who laments how so many junior footballers have been left down in skill training before they reach the big league.
And in the era of AFL footballers being asked to fill out their lives “outside the bubble” with university and college business courses, Farrell wants to keep his hands dirty learning skills in the building trade, particularly woodwork. It runs in the family, back to his grandfather.
“And I want to carry that one - I am hands on,” said Farrell.
For the next decade, Port Adelaide fans will hope Farrell is keeping his hands busy in either setting up or finishing goals. Ken Hinkley also wants Farrell to get them dirty by winning more of his own possessions.
“Ken’s been great for me on what to work on - and he certainly wants me to develop my contested game,” Farrell said.
For all the coaching - and all the mentoring from Sam Gray and Lindsay Thomas - in the past nine months at Alberton, three hours at Adelaide Oval with Showdown 45 gave Farrell the greatest appreciation of why Hinkley demands his players have an appetite for the contest.
“The heat takes a definite step up in Showdowns ... and I enjoyed it,” Farrell said.
“I was definitely more nervous for the Showdown than I was for my first (AFL) game (against the Western Bulldogs). Ballarat is close to where I grew up, so it felt like a normal game to me.
“During the week of the Showdown I tried to stay as calm as I could. But by the day of the game I was more nervous than I was at Ballarat.
“And there is nothing that can prepare you for taking that step up from the juniors to the AFL. The first day of pre-season training - with three one-kilometre runs - was a good welcome to the AFL.
“Showdowns are just hot - and quick. It’s loud with a one-sided crowd. But the game gave me a lot of belief to play at this level.”
The dream is coming true for Kane Farrell.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
THEY CALL HIM “FAZ”
THEY call him “Faz” (as with Collingwood’s Alex Fasolo, a nickname Channel 7 commentator Brian Taylor is sure to savour).
Kane Farrell came to Port Adelaide with the moniker.
“It’s from one of my mates (at Castlemaine); obviously, it is from my last name,” said the Power latest AFL debutant. “And it’s stuck.”
Farrell, the Power’s second pick in last year’s national draft, arrived at Alberton in the summer to live his childhood dream to be an AFL player - and with the clear understanding it would not just happen by talent alone.
Farrell’s speed - and neat left-foot kicking to load up team-mates and to finish, as he did with three goals in the Showdown - give the teenager a sound base on which to build a long AFL career.
“But I have to make the most of it,” Farrell said.
This theme has been left on Farrell by his mentors at Alberton, fellow forwards Sam Gray and the experienced Lindsay Thomas who returned to Port Adelaide from North Melbourne in the off-season.
“They say it is up to me to get as much out of my career as I can - and to back my skills to play at this level,” Farrell said.
Farrell’s notable athletic prowess put him on the path to Australian football, cricket (with a fair resume as a bowler) and basketball. Football won out by following his older brother Brodie to Australia’s winter game.
“Now that I’ve had my start,” said Farrell, who made his AFL debut in the hail-struck clash with the Western Bulldogs at Ballarat a fortnight ago, “I want to keep playing footy. It is my childhood dream - and I want to play for as long as I can.”
At least long enough to see if the “Faz” nickname he carried to Port Adelaide can survive even Brian Taylor’s calls on national free-to-air television.
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