How Hamish Ogilvie and his recruiting team unearthed top-line AFL talent who took the unconventional route to star for the Adelaide Crows
Recruiters don’t have favourites but Hamish Ogilvie admits to a certain satisfaction in watching Reilly O’Brien, Lachlan Murphy, Hugh Greenwood and Alex Keath star for the Crows this season. Each has their own incredible story which Ogilvie details here.
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Recruiters aren’t supposed to have favourites but there are four players in Adelaide’s 22 at the moment who Hamish Ogilvie admits give him a little extra satisfaction from his job.
Reilly O’Brien, Lachlan Murphy, Alex Keath and Hugh Greenwood have taken the unconventional route to AFL footy.
They all started their journey with the Crows as rookies after playing cricket or basketball or being overlooked in their draft year.
But now, they’re all in Adelaide’s best side and between them have played 54 games this season alone — Greenwood in the No. 1 guernsey, Keath, O’Brien and Murphy in the No. 42, 43 and 44.
And they’re starring. O’Brien has overtaken Sam Jacobs as the Crows’ No. 1 ruckman and is making the club rethink its big-money play for Brodie Grundy.
Murphy is going at just under a goal-a-game as a high-pressure small forward and just signed a contract extension.
Keath remarkably went into the year unsure of his spot in the team but would be top three in their best-and-fairest and in All Australian squad contention after Round 16.
While Greenwood is again setting the benchmark for contested possession in the midfield and providing a marking target inside 50m as he begins talks with the club on a new deal.
It’s all very heartening for Ogilvie who either took a punt or pursued them for years to get them to West Lakes.
“Yep, all of that,” he said this week.
“I also love the (Ian) Callinan story, I love the Rick Henderson story because it’s sort of something out of nothing.
“We tried a few others — a couple of Irishmen and basketballers before — and they’re not all guaranteed but Hughy and Keathy had high-level footy backgrounds so that makes it a lot easier.”
Regardless of which sport Ogilvie is targeting a player from, he says one trait shines through regardless — competitiveness.
“You build it with confidence but real, real, true competitors — you either have it or you don’t,” he said.
REILLY O’BRIEN
Age: 23
Drafted: Pick 9, Rookie Draft, 2014
AFL Debut: Round 20, 2016
Adelaide’s first pick in the 2014 rookie draft, O’Brien came across as a 19-year-old from the Calder Cannons and made his AFL debut two years later.
“He played the extra year for Calder (Cannons) where he played a fair bit of centre-half-back including in the grand final that year,” Ogilvie said.
“He played a few games for Coburg in the VFL in the ruck as well and one of the clinching games we saw him at Port Melbourne and I remember that told us that he could probably play some ruck at AFL level and be a good, solid back up.
“I thought he’d be ready when we needed him and he was ready the couple of times he had to play (in 2016), because he played pretty well in the SANFL from day one.
“He was a top-line SANFL ruckman from the day he walked in because he’s a biggish sort of kid and he’s very competitive.
“Could he have played 15 games in his first two years? Probably not but he could have played five because he came in as a 20-year-old.
“He’s always been safe on the list and a ready back up (for Jacobs) because his SANFL form was good. Sauce was always going really well and there was no need to get anyone else in because he was the understudy.”
Ogilvie said he took a sense of satisfaction in how O’Brien has made the ruck spot his own this season.
“Yeah but he’s done it, aside from injuries with his back and shoulder, he’s been ready to go whenever we’ve needed him. It’s just Sauce is so durable that hasn’t been much (in the past),” he said.
O’Brien’s top three finish in Adelaide’s time trials this pre-season came as no surprise to him either.
“It’s credit to him because he’s a phenomenal worker. That’s a pretty low time, that 6:20-6:30 that was real pleasing but again credit to him he’d done a power of work because that’s a midfielder’s time,” Ogilvie said.
LACHLAN MURPHY
Age: 20
Drafted: Pick 38, Rookie Draft, 2017
AFL Debut: Round 1, 2018
Overlooked in his draft year with the Northern Knights in the TAC Cup — where he won the best-and-fairest despite playing just 10 games — Murphy came over to play with Adelaide’s SANFL team in 2017 and worked in the club’s shop at West Lakes.
He was a friend of Matthew Signorello who was on the Crows’ list but eventually commanded a spot on the list as well, and has now played 26 games in the past two years.
“That was the first year the SANFL allowed us to get some 18, 19 year olds from outside South Australia because we needed some help with the top ups, and he played half school footy and half TAC Cup,” Ogilvie said.
“He was a midfielder in kids footy but we knew he could play back pocket, small forward or on the wing and he wasn’t going to interfere with the listed players but would give us depth and competitiveness in some other spots.
“He dominated school footy and his 10 TAC games were really good, it was a pretty obvious one and he wanted the chance and he was up for it.
“That was a little win that he chose to come to Adelaide and not stay in Victoria.”
ALEX KEATH
Age: 27
Drafted: Category B rookie in 2016
AFL Debut: Round 18, 2017
Originally listed by Gold Coast before pursuing a cricket career with Victoria and in the Big Bash, Keath was eventually persuaded to return to football with the Crows as a Category B rookie in 2016.
At the time he was still playing District Cricket with Prospect but it became increasingly clear that he’d made the right call to chase his AFL dream.
He co-captained the Crows’ SANFL team before making his AFL debut in 2017 when he played six games, but has cemented himself in the backline this year by playing every game and dominated with his intercept marking.
“He’s a high level talent and like Hugh they went off to another sport and there’s not much doubt that if they come back, work hard and get a good run with injury they can do it,” Ogilvie said.
“I thought he’d be more of a forward, but perhaps a little bit easier to play in defence and credit to him he’s done the work.
“A bit of credit to Matthew Wade (at Cricket Victoria) too. I used to check in with Matty because I coached him and see how Keathy was going, so when it came to the time when Keathy was thinking about coming over I’d spoken to Matty Wade a fair bit about his training, work ethic, professionalism, competitiveness.
“Then I would check in with Alex to keep our foot in the door that if he did decide to come back then we wanted him.
“Matt knows about competitiveness because that’s what he is, and I know he knows footy so I’m happy to talk to him about players because he understands what’s required.”
HUGH GREENWOOD
Age: 27
Drafted: Category B rookie in 2015
AFL Debut: Round 9, 2017
Games: 48
Greenwood was a promising junior footballer in Tasmania before basketball took over and took him to College in the US where he captained New Mexico as well as representing Australia.
But Ogilvie stayed in touch with Greenwood the entire time and after going to the US to have a kick with him in his final year of college, managed to convince him to make the switch back to footy.
Like Keath, Greenwood signed as a Category B rookie co-captained the Crows’ SANFL team and eventually forced his way into the side midway through the 2017 season when he played in the AFL grand final.
Since then he has been a regular in the midfield and forwardline impressing with his contested ball, tackling and overhead marking.
“It was just a matter of getting his running to a suitable standard, and he’s done the work to be able to play, I thought he’d be more of a forward so slightly exceeded expectations that he can play midfield at AFL because we never really saw that as a kid,” Ogilvie said.
“We saw the point guard (in basketball) but he was a young tall, and it was such a long time since he played footy.
“I kicked with him in Albuquerque and he said to me ‘are my skills at the level, do you think I could come back (to footy)?’ and I said ‘no worries’ because he was actually bruising my hands with his kick.
“David (Noble) went first to see him and I went to catch up with him the next year which was the start of his last year in college.
“We’d watched it all, we taped or recorded most New Mexico games, but I also followed him as a mate and we tracked him, we knew he was in a good conference and he was the captain.
“He was the leader in a town where they don’t have a professional sporting team, the New Mexico basketball team is the biggest team in town and he was captain so he’s pretty much the biggest sportsman in Albuquerque, so handling all that stuff was good preparation to come back to AFL because we knew he was a pro.”
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