Stephen Coniglio reveals how he chose football over cricket
IRONICALLY, it was a visit from Justin Langer that helped Stephen Coniglio choose football over cricket, but after a career year, the Giants star’s decision has paid off in spades.
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WHEN Stephen Coniglio was agonising over whether he should pursue a career in AFL or cricket, the story goes that he had Justin Langer knock on his door.
It’s understood the then Western Australia coach simply asked the sporting prodigy what he wanted to do, and when the answer came back footy, Coniglio was encouraged to follow his heart.
On Tuesday as Coniglio spoke to media at GWS Giants headquarters ahead of their blockbuster final at the MCG, Langer announced his new-look Australian Test team with a host of young guns named.
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It was a sliding doors moment of sorts.
One of those vacancies in the revamped Australian batting order could have easily gone to Coniglio – an under 17s state batting champion who stood out even in an age group boasting the talent of Cameron Bancroft and Ashton Agar – had he stuck with cricket.
Of course that is all ancient history now.
Coniglio will run out onto cricket’s coliseum the MCG on Saturday night with a Sherrin in his hands and has never looked back since committing himself to the AFL all those years ago.
It’s proved a masterstroke as the 24-year-old has continued to develop into one of the competition’s most complete packages.
However, Coniglio has revealed how Langer’s influence as a mentor has endured and how the Australia cricket coach has influenced the iron-willed determination he has made his trademark at GWS.
“When he talks everyone listens and I just remember how inspiring he is,” Coniglio told The Daily Telegraph.
“Not purely from what he did in his career but he just demands that respect from people.
“I remember one occasion we were at school and he was the guest speaker and he came in talking about his first time playing the West Indies and how they were bouncing him and kept going at his body.
“He was just copping hits and he was just loving it that they were peppering him.
“That courage to go on and actually (embrace it) rather than be scared of it.
“There was a lot of learnings from a couple of the speeches he did.”
Leading voices across the game led by premiership Kangaroo David King were outraged that Coniglio didn’t figure in All-Australian calculations this year.
Coniglio’s numbers in the midfield are astounding, with his 22 goals underlying the extra dimension that comes with his possession dominance.
Many say Coniglio was a better cricketer than he was a footballer as a teen, which might be a slightly distressing thought for Australian fans trying to rebuild the pieces.
Choosing the AFL is often a safer bet for talented kids, roster spots on 18 teams as opposed to 11 solitary positions in the national team.
But Coniglio says that challenge actually almost convinced him to stick with cricket, and it was the team culture intrinsic with football that ultimately got him over the line.
“It was a tough call. I think coming into the time of making the decision I was obviously in footy season and that probably helped a little bit in that,” he said.
“But I think the prospect of playing in a much bigger team sport … I was just really keen on applying my craft to AFL and once I made the call it was real easy in my head and I haven’t regretted it once.
“When people were saying that (it’s harder to make it in cricket) with my personality I actually kept going back to the cricket side of it, thinking, ‘well if it’s harder to make it, I want to test myself out.’
“That was part of it. Battling with my own ego to make sure I was making the right decision and I have done that.”
If Coniglio, with his wide repertoire of soccer celebrations, regrets anything, it’s that his father didn’t put a round ball at his feet instead.
Originally published as Stephen Coniglio reveals how he chose football over cricket
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