AFL 2022: Adelaide young star Josh Rachele opens up on experiencing Shepparton floods

Josh Rachele headed back to his hometown for the off-season to spend time with family and friends. But the Shepparton floods changed things in a big way.

Blocked in by submerged roads, his local footy oval underwater and his family orchard damaged.

That was Crows future star Josh Rachele’s overwhelming experience of the chaotic Shepparton floods that have ravaged his local community in the past week.

SEE RACHELE’S JUNIOR CLUB IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

Rachele, who hails from the nearby suburb of Kialla just outside of Shepparton, wasn’t hit as hard as many in the community and considers himself one of the lucky ones.

That is despite their family orchard in East Shepparton, run by his father and two uncles, being impacted.

Central Park Orchards – which grows a variety of stone fruits and pears – was left flooded, with the dire conditions ruining some crops and hurting the business financially.

Josh Rachele outside his family home, where they were blocked in by flooded roads. Picture: Supplied

Josh Rachele at his orchard before getting drafted last year. Picture: Michael Klein.

His family orchard after the floods. Picture: Supplied

But that didn’t compare to the “heartbreaking” experiences of many of Rachele’s friends, who were forced to evacuate and suffered serious damage to their homes and cars.

The biggest shock to the system for the 19-year-old was the state of his junior football club the Shepparton Swans, with Princess Park — the oval he starred at as a youngster — underwater and the changerooms left with serious damage.

Back in Kialla on his off-season break, Rachele and his family were initially laughed at by neighbours for being overcautious when they sandbagged their windows last week, before the town descended into chaos on Thursday.

“Then all of a sudden when it did hit, it was just like panic mode … It was havoc, everyone was stressing and they had a limit to get sandbags,” Rachele told News Corp.

“It’s been very full on … I’ve seen floods and things like that on the news and Queensland especially but to actually experience it is definitely a whole different experience.

“It was pretty overwhelming at the start because you actually don’t think how bad it is going to be … Down my end I probably didn’t cop it as bad, but we got blocked in. We live on a lake so it went pretty high up in our backyard but didn’t touch our houses.

The flooding near Josh Rachele's house in Kialla, just outside Shepparton. Picture: Supplied

“I have a lot of mates who had to end up tearing up their carpet and pulling out their furniture and had to live out of home for a few days and evacuate which is pretty devastating for them.

“The big thing (for the orchard) was the transport and stuff because we have trucks and they obviously couldn’t come in and do orders.

“We were already pretty heavily affected the last couple of years from Covid and now for this to happen it kind of hurt us a bit too. But we were lucky for now that it has opened up a bit… but it’s meant to rain a bit heavily later this week so we kind of start all over again.”

The silver lining has been the community rallying together to raise a whopping $30,000 in the space of just three days for the Shepparton Swans, with Rachele and his family donating $1000 to the cause.

The changerooms at Shepparton Swans FC were submerged. Picture: Supplied

“We’re pretty lucky that we started a GoFundMe page as a club a few days ago and we just wanted to raise like $15,000-20,000 grand but we are over $30,000 already. Just really amazing,” he said.

With the roads around his family home no longer flooded, Rachele has headed down to Melbourne to train with fellow Crows youngsters Jake Soligo and Luke Nankervis as he aims to push into Adelaide’s midfield in 2023.

Rachele, who was rising star favourite early in the season before held back by “frustrating” hip flexor setbacks, is eager to form a dynamic duo with prized recruit Izak Rankine, with the pair already exchanging plenty of messages.

“Now it is just being able to have another pre-season under my belt, build my fitness, hopefully push into that midfield next year and create a good duo with Rankine now which is exciting to learn off him and train off him is something – our forward line is going to very exciting next year,” Rachele said.

Originally published as AFL 2022: Adelaide young star Josh Rachele opens up on experiencing Shepparton floods