How John Noble fought his way onto an AFL list in the middle of the year and is now set for a preliminary final for Collingwood
The text message to Justin Longmuir, coffee with Scott Pendlebury and video tutorials with Matthew Boyd. How John Noble arrived at Collingwood as an unknown in the middle of the year and is now on the verge of an AFL preliminary final.
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Two weeks into his new life at Collingwood, John Noble returned to Adelaide for a few days when he sent a text message to his new defensive coach Justin Longmuir which took him by surprise.
“He said ‘I’m going to enjoy the next few days off but when I get back I’m going to come and see you, I really want to make an opportunity for myself in the AFL side,” Longmuir recalled.
That was June, Noble had just been plucked from SANFL club West Adelaide by the Magpies with Pick No.14 in the mid-season draft and was adamant he wasn’t there to be stockpiled for the future.
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“I thought ‘that’s pretty impressive for a kid who’s been around for a couple of weeks’,” Longmuir said.
“But he backed it up, he came and saw me and did a lot of work with Matty Boyd and his ability to pick up our gameplan really quickly was impressive.”
Noble was playing wing/half forward at Westies but Collingwood wanted him to play half-back so he did a lot of out-of-hours tutorials with Boyd to learn his new role.
“He adapted really quickly,” Longmuir said.
“He’s got a good ability to self-reflect on his own games and he’s probably his harshest judge, not too harsh but accurate, which is a good trait to have I think to be able to self-reflect, you don’t have to wait for coaches to give you feedback.”
Noble also sought out skipper Scott Pendlebury for a chat over coffee which put him on the right path at his new club.
Longmuir describes the 22-year-old as having “a bit of confidence and swagger”.
Not too much, just enough to walk into an entirely new club - Collingwood no less, the biggest of them all - mid-way through the year having not done a single pre-season training session with his new teammates which is typically where that water-tight bond is formed.
One minute Noble was stacking shelves at Foodland and studying teaching at university in Adelaide, the next he was eyeing a spot in a Collingwood side that was in premiership contention.
“I don’t think there’s a tougher situation (for a young player) to go into, but he didn’t seem overwhelmed by it,” Longmuir said.
“He wasn’t sitting back waiting for it to come to him, he went and grabbed it which is really impressive.”
The first two weeks he was put through a rigorous fitness program for the club to “find out where he’s at”, then he played half-a-game of VFL and went from there, eventually debuting against West Coast in Perth in Round 17. He then played Round 22, 23 and the qualifying final.
“He has confidence in his own ability but he didn’t come knocking on the first day saying ‘I need to be in the AFL team’, he earnt his stripes,” Longmuir said.
“He was prepared to do the hard work and endeared himself to the rest of the team.
“He hasn’t just sat back in our line meetings either. Early days he did, but since he’s been in the AFL side he’s been willing to add his part and reflect the way we want to play.
“I know a few of the other boys have been really impressed with the way he’s been able to add to the group.”
On Saturday, providing as expected he holds his spot, Noble will play in an AFL preliminary final after a football career that began with Plympton in suburban Adelaide and progressed to Sacred Heart at school and then Glenelg and West Adelaide in the SANFL.
He found his way to Westies in the pre-season of 2014 when Bloods coach Mark Mickan and football manager Andrew Marks were called to a meeting with the Crows who were searching for top-up players going into their first year in the state league competition.
On the way out of Crows HQ at Footy Park, Marks said Mickan was asked to go into David Noble’s office who was then Adelaide’s head of football and said his twin boys John and Mark were at Glenelg but were seeking greater opportunities elsewhere and asked could they train at West.
Mickan agreed but the 17-year-olds couldn’t break into the under-18 team that eventually won the premiership and had players like Aaron Francis, Riley Bonner, Sam Durdin and Will Snelling all drafted.
The next year Noble kicked eight goals in an under-18 internal trial game and was immediately elevated to the senior squad.
“Mark (Mickan) was watching that game and said to us ‘right, he needs to come up’,” Marks recalls.
West Adelaide won the senior premiership in 2015 and John made his league debut in 2016 but didn’t become a regular in the side until 2017.
“I’ve seen him improve each year. Last year he consolidated a spot in the senior team and just continued to improve,” current West Adelaide coach Gavin Colville said.
“He’s obviously small in stature and his groundballs needed to improve ... I’m not sure if he spent every day in the gym he would get overly big, but it was as much about being strong over the ball.
“That’s never going to be John’s strength, and I think Bucks (Nathan Buckley) has said it a few times, they’ve got him in there because of what assets he has.
“Ideally we can make every player have every asset but somtimes it’s better to focus purely on what they can really do and clearly that’s what Collingwood is doing with him at half-back - run and break the lines.
“For John and us it wasn’t about making contested ball a complete strength, but minimising any potential weakness in that area, and I think he’s done that.
“He one-takes the ball, he’s sound in tight, uses his hands a lot better and picks when to run and when to give the first option.”
To Longmuir’s point about Noble constantly seeking feedback on his own game, Colville said he would ask several people at West to go through his game vision with him.
“He was the most dedicated and had the most proactive approach to his footy that I’ve seen,” Colville said.
“He would seek feedback on every game - and from multiple sources reviewing his vision - he would use older guys in the team and I know his dad has been a good resource for him as well as you would expect.
“He’d self-analyse his game, then seek feedback from me and then look for another source. So it’s not a fluke, he’s done everything he could to be the best player he could.”
Earlier this year West Adelaide knew Collingwood, which could replace the injured Lynden Dunn on its list, and Fremantle were both keen on Noble leading into the mid-season draft.
Collingwood’s Adelaide-based recruiter, Brett Leonard, used to be an under-18 assistant and league defensive coach at West Adelaide and had done his homework.
But on top of that, Noble’s teammate Will Snelling, was being courted by Essendon and was snapped up as well with Pick 7.
“About a week before the mid-season draft I was driving to the Riverland and had our talent manager in the car when I said to him ‘I’m going to have to ring Gavin, duck’,” Marks said.
“And my phone call to Gavin was ‘I think we’re going to lose them both’.”
Colville’s response was succinct.
“You could probably guess what he said,” Marks said.
“Obviously you’re always happy for the boys, and if you’re developing guys to go to the next level then you’re doing your job.
“I guess the unfortunate part was the timing of this one.”
On the night of the mid-season draft, Snelling trained with West Adelaide as per normal and Noble didn’t, but he came into the club a few times to say goodbye.
“It impacted our season significantly but to see what’s happened to both of them, we can’t deny it’s the right thing, who knows what would have happened if they had an injury and never got the chance,” Colville said.
“We’d prefer it not to happen to us every year but I’m absolutely rapt for them.
“When he (Noble) first went over we spoke almost weekly and now he’s up and running so I just shoot him a text and say ‘well done’.
“Hopefully the only time I see him is when he occasionally passes by West Adelaide, he’s got another world in front of him now which is great.”
One of Noble’s close mates at Westies, Kenny Karpany, said it was surreal to see him go from under-18 teammate to now an AFL preliminary final with Collingwood.
“It’s unreal, he’s worked so hard for it, doing all the extras when he was here,” Karpany said.
“It’s inspired a lot of the boys here who are keen to get drafted like him and Snels (Snelling).
“I’ve been texting him and wishing him luck ... lucky bugger, I wish I was playing in a prelim.”
When Noble does play in Saturday’s preliminary final against GWS, Marks will be on the couch in his living room where he watched the Magpies’ qualifying final against Geelong a fortnight ago.
“I just sat there saying ‘where’s he from? where’s he from?’” Marks said.
“We’ve had something like 60 players drafted since the draft started which is phenomenal.
“Now, Mr Red and Black sitting in the corner might say we’ve only won two premierships (in the last 30-odd years) in 1983 and 2015 and I see his point as well.
“But that’s the balance you have in a state league comp. That’s just how it is, but you can’t be anything but pleased or over the moon for them.”