He’s played just 37 AFL games in eight seasons but in some ways Crow Cam Ellis-Yolmen is just getting started

Adelaide midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen says he considered making a move to another AFL club to get a game but has finally been rewarded for his resilience and hard work this season.

BIG HELP: Cam Ellis-Yolmen (right) celebrates the Crows’ two-point win against Melbourne last week with mentor Eddie Betts. Picture: DAN PELED (AAP).

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Cam Ellis-Yolmen admits there have been times when he has thought about walking away from the Adelaide Football Club and trying his luck elsewhere.

“Absolutely, I’ve had those thoughts and opportunities,’’ the big-bodied midfielder said after playing just 29 games in his first seven years at the club, being delisted and then twice re-selected as a rookie.

“It has been tough and my mind has started running through different scenarios, even wondering what life would be like on the outside (of the football bubble).

“But I’m a pretty determined and resilient person and this is the club that I wanted to be at,

so, as long as they wanted me, I stayed.

“I guess I felt I had some unfinished business here.’’

Eddie Betts (left) and teammate Cam Ellis-Yolmen of the Crows celberate winning the Round 11 match against Melbourne in Darwin. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Of all the players selected at the 2011 national draft, only one that is still in the system has played fewer AFL matches than Ellis-Yolmen, who was picked at No. 64 from SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens.

Ellis-Yolmen’s eight matches this season — from rounds four to 11 — take his total to 37.

Former Port Adelaide midfielder Brendon Ah Chee, now at West Coast, has played 35 AFL games after being selected by the Power at pick 45 eight years ago.

Twenty-seven of Ah Chee’s games were with Port until the end of 2017 while he played eight with the Eagles in its premiership campaign last year following his trade for a third-round selection, although he did not play in the finals.

Ellis-Yolmen’s current streak of eight consecutive matches is the second longest of his career, trailing only the 12 in a row he played from rounds one to 12 last year.

“It’s been a tough journey and there have been times where I questioned whether I did have a future here or in the AFL but I always felt that I had more to give,’’ the 26-year-old said as the Crows prepare for one of the biggest challenges of their season against second-placed Greater Western Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

Cam Ellis-Yolmen of the Crows in action during the Round 11 match against Melbourne. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

“I am a very resilient person, I don't like giving up, and when I decide to do something I do everything I can to get it.

“I knew I had more to give, so I kept working hard and trying to put my best foot forward and fortunately opportunities opened up for me again at Adelaide.’’

After rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a pre-season game against Richmond in 2017 and missing the entire season, the little-used Ellis-Yolmen, who at 190cm and 96kg is your Nat Fyfe type of big-bodied, modern on-baller, found himself delisted at the end of the year.

He had opportunities to move but after being promised by the Crows that they would reselect him as a rookie, he stayed.

Ellis-Yolmen enjoyed the best patch of his AFL career in the first half of last season, playing 12 straight games and averaging 20 disposals, before suffering a quad injury and finding himself in and out of the side in the latter rounds.

Adelaide's Cam Ellis-Yolmen looks to hand off as he is tackled by St Kilda’s Matthew Parker. Picture: Michael Klein.

OUT of contract, he had hoped to be promoted to the senior list but for the second consecutive year had to settle for a rookie deal.

“I wasn’t where I wanted to be (from a list point of view) but the Crows were still confident enough in my ability to keep me on the list, so I was really happy to stay,’’ Ellis-Yolmen.

But he was far from satisfied.

He knew 29 games in the best part of a decade didn’t cut it, so he went to work on his fitness.

“It was disappointing that I got hurt in the middle of the year because I felt I was going okay but by the end of the season obviously my spot was in jeopardy again,’’ Ellis-Yolmen said.

“I would have been really unhappy and pretty upset if it had all ended for me at the end of last year.

“But — being given another opportunity to prove myself — I knew this wasn’t the end of my journey playing footy.

“So I really put my head down and tried to make a good impression in the pre-season, which is where your year starts.

“I wanted to prolong my footy career and play the best footy I could.’’

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Ellis-Yolmen did not miss a beat over summer, enjoying an injury-free training block while shaving five seconds off his previous best 2km time trial.

It has left him feeling stronger and able to run out games better

“I feel like I’ve matured into my body,’’ he said.

“Obviously I’ve carried around a fair bit of weight, being a bigger bodied player, but while my body shape hasn’t changed this year I feel lighter because of my extra fitness.

“I’m running out games better and not getting tired in the last quarter.

“My running times over pre-season improved but as an inside mid a lot of your time is spent tackling, pressuring and using your body against the bigger mids at stoppages, which is energy sapping, so the fitter you can be the better.’’

Ellis-Yolmen, who revealed he had lent on popular teammate Eddie Betts and his wife, Anna, for support during the times he doubted himself — “they’ve been mentors for me and helped pick me up when I’ve been down,’’ he said — started the season in the SANFL but has shone since earning promotion against the Kangaroos in round four.

OFTEN pitted against the opposition’s biggest midfielder, such as Docker Fyfe, North’s Ben Cunnington and Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver, Ellis-Yolmen has helped curtail them while averaging a career-high 24 disposals, including 12 contested possessions.

In the past five rounds, he ranks No. 1 at the club for hardball and groundball gets and broken tackles and second for contested possessions and clearances.

He believes he is in the best form of his rollercoaster career.

“Mixing it with the best midfielders, the big ball magnets, has been a great challenge and given me a good starting point at stoppages and helped take me to the ball,’’ Ellis-Yolmen said.

“It’s a role I’ve really enjoyed, has built my confidence and I think I’ve been able to prove that I can play at AFL level.

“I feel very comfortable out there now, that I finally belong on the AFL stage.’’

But, having played just 37 of a possible 174 games in his Crows career, he refuses to get ahead of himself and contemplate another contract.

“I’m just taking it very much one game at a time because I think that’s the best way to get the best out of myself. We’ll see what happens from there,’’ he said.