After a tough start to his Port Adelaide career, ruckman Sam Hayes is starting to blossom
Emerging Power ruckman Sam Hayes has returned fitter and stronger after long, tough fitness battle and is ready to repay the club for its faith in his development.
Sam Hayes reckons he must have crossed paths with a black cat.
“It’s a bit like that because I’ve sure spent a long time in rehab,’’ Port Adelaide’s emerging ruck giant said of his injury and illness plagued first season-and-a-half at Alberton.
“But I guess these things can happen as a footballer. If anything, it’s just taught me to have pretty good resilience.
“But I’m very happy to be back playing now, I can tell you.’’
Hayes, 20, is the least heralded of the Power’s five ruck options, which includes current No. 1, West Coast premiership player Scott Lycett, 2017 All-Australian Paddy Ryder, Peter Ladhams and Billy Frampton, and the only one not to have played an AFL game.
But the player that most football followers outside of Alberton probably haven’t heard of has arguably the biggest upside.
“He’s a really good young player, such a young player with a lot of growth still, but he’s got a really bright future,’’ said Port coach Ken Hinkley.
A shocking slider at the 2017 national draft - the Power snapped the Victorian up at pick 47 after he had widely been viewed as a first-round selection - Hayes arrived at Alberton with a point to prove.
Playing for the Eastern Ranges and Vic Metro, Hayes had made consecutive All-Australian under-18 teams and had respected draft analyst and four-times Hawthorn premiership forward Gary Buckenara rate him as the sixth-best player in the entire pool.
But concerns over his fitness, particularly endurance, saw him plummet down the draft board and fall into the Power's lap in the third round.
“The question marks on him were over his ability to run,’’ Port’s national recruiting manager Geoff Parker said at the time.
“I wasn’t overly concerned because I think his tap ruckwork is better than anyone’s in the draft and he still gets involved in the game, which means he’s got some footy smarts about him. He’s also a good mark and can go forward and kick a goal.
“The running stuff I’m not overly concerned about because I will back our fitness staff in being able to improve people.’’
When Hayes first tested at Alberton he was, in his own words, “awful’’.
He was a long last - “I was well at the back,’’ he said - in his first 3km time trial with his new teammates, recording 13:50.
But, with help from Port’s fitness staff, he shaved one minute of his second time trial a few weeks later.
And he took another minute off his third later in the season, registering 11:50, illustrating the hard work he had put in.
The Power was so happy with his work ethic and development that it signed him to a two-year contract extension before the season even started, tying him to the club until the end of 2021.
But just as Hayes’ season was taking flight for the Port Magpies in the SANFL, he landed awkwardly in a marking contest at training in June and ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
His debut season was over after just seven games.
“I was doing some contested work, went up for the mark, took the mark and got pushed as I came down to land and my knee buckled,’’ Hayes recalled.
“I felt a pull and a crack and knew I had done something (bad). The knee started to swell up, I had scans that afternoon and then found out the bad news.’’
With his rookie season coming to a premature end, Hayes spent his time on the sidelines trying to add muscle to his growing frame.
After arriving at Port at 203cm, he had sprouted to 205 but was a lightweight 91kg.
“I was skinny, very lightly framed, so after doing my knee I was in the gym all the time,’’ Hayes said.
“I was able to use my time out to really work on my body and I’ve come a long way in that area.’’
Hayes now tips the scales at 100kg - just 6kg short of his optimum playing weight of 106kg, which he says would enable him to physically match it with the two ruckmen he models his game on, 2018 All-Australians, Melbourne’s Max Gawn and Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy, who win so much of the ball they are like extra midfielders.
But just as Hayes was preparing to make his long-awaited comeback from his serious knee injury in this year’s round seven SANFL clash against the Crows at Alberton, he had another setback.
“I was preparing to play that weekend but came off the (training) track one morning
feeling absolutely gassed,’’ he said.
“I went to see the docs because I felt so bad, that something wasn’t right.
“We had some blood tests done and they showed that I had mild glandular fever, meaning another stint on the sidelines.
“I couldn’t believe it and was thinking ‘gee, I've just got my body right and ready to go again and now this’.
“That was really tough for me, that glandular fever period, because when I did my knee I understood what had happened and what was in front of me but the illness came as a real shock and knocked me around a bit not only physically but mentally.’’
Hayes’ comeback was put on hold as doctors ordered him to rest to let his body fight the debilitating virus.
“To be so close to playing again and then being told you couldn’t, that was tough and I didn’t enjoy it at all.’’
But finally the time did come for Hayes.
He was cleared to resume in the round 10 clash against Norwood at Alberton Oval and immediately made his mark, with some good aerial work and two goals in the Magpies’ resounding 45-point triumph.
“It had been a long wait so I was just so happy to be back playing again,’’ Hayes said.
“It felt unreal, awesome to be back out there with the boys.’’
Hayes has now played four consecutive games for the Magpies and has been on the winning side each time.
But the chip on his shoulder, dropping so far down the draft board, is still there.
“I want to prove the recruiters, the teams that didn’t pick me, wrong,’’ said Hayes, who has averaged 12 disposals, five marks, 16 hitouts and a goal in his four games since returning to the side.
“Obviously I was a bit flat at the time that I slipped so much in the draft but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what number you go, it’s what happens when you get there and what you do that matters.
“But it definitely has made me work harder and get a lot fitter and hopefully I can repay Port for its faith.’’
The Power has a host of ruck options but rates Hayes so highly that he is one of only two ruckmen under contract, along with Lycett, who it traded for at the end of last season.
Ryder, Ladhams and Frampton remain unsigned and are attracting interest from rivals.
THE POWER’S MR ENTERTAINMENT
He is still trying to make his mark on the field but off it Sam Hayes has already made a big impression at Port Adelaide.
A happy-go-lucky character, Hayes has quickly become the Power’s team joker, bringing some fun and lightheartedness to team meetings before trainings with his infectious personality that takes aim at his teammates and club staff.
A master impersonator, Hayes often is called before the playing group before team meetings to mimic teammates while he also has a keen eye for lookalikes.
“When I was playing at Eastern Ranges and Vic Metro I really enjoyed impersonating some of the coaches and players,’’ Hayes said.
“All of us (Power) drafted boys from 2017 lived with (development coach) Chad Cornes in our first couple of weeks at the club and there was a coach at Port, Aaron Greaves, who I could impersonate pretty well.
“The boys loved it so I did it before a team meeting, spoke a bit of smack, and all the players really got around it, had a good laugh.’’
Former development coach Greaves, now at North Melbourne, was Hayes’ No. 1 target.
But no-one is off limits.
Football general manager Chris Davies and ruck coach, 2004 Power premiership player Dean Brogan, have been front and centre of Hayes’ regular “lookalikes’’ which have been plasted on the screens in the inner sanctum at Alberton.
Davies has been compared to “Dr Evil’’ from the Austin Powers film series and Brogan to Russian boxer Ivan Drago, played by actor Dolph Lundgren, in the Rocky IV movie.
“I’m happy to get anyone at the club,’’ said Hayes.
“I go down the front and roll the photos, have a bit of fun with it.
“It’s not just the players but anyone, the staff and coaches.
“It’s just having a bit of fun, getting the boys up and about before training a few times.’’
Hayes will play his fifth game on the trot in the SANFL blockbuster against top-of-the-table Glenelg at Alberton Oval on Sunday where he hopes to push his claims for an AFL debut before the end of the season.
“I really want to play this year and keep challenging the other rucks,’’ he said.