Chris Mayne has become one of Collingwood’s most reliable players after a difficult first season with the Magpies
CHRIS Mayne didn’t do much wrong last year but was still the most maligned player of 2017 but this season has been a different story after turning himself into one of Collingwood’s most reliable players.
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FOOTBALL has always painted its players as heroes or villains with little room for shades of grey.
But even by usual standards, Chris Mayne didn’t do much wrong to be handed the title of the most maligned player of 2017.
There was no off-field transgression, calamitous game-losing turnover or media snafu.
His offence was believing Collingwood had faith in his particular brand of football — a high-intensity, high-tackling defence-based game — enough to sign him for four years at $500,000 a season.
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Instead he languished in the VFL as fan anger grew, then after just three games he had to watch on as the club questioned the manner of his recruitment in the post-season.
On Saturday, the former Fremantle player, a 29-year-old vegan and fiance to model Britt Nicholas, will run onto the MCG as a valued member of Collingwood’s midfield core after stringing together 15 consecutive games.
Hero?
Not quite yet, but those who know Mayne well could not be more thrilled for a player who has always done it the hard way.
Born with a cleft lip and palate that required major operations and years of speech therapy, Mayne found his way on to the Fremantle list through hard work rather than sheer talent.
As his first season at Collingwood turned into a nightmare, it was his work with less fortunate kids as a Starlight Foundation ambassador that sustained him.
Then after the Pies briefly pondered trading him back to Fremantle after coach Nathan Buckley said they had a “decision” to make on a player with $1.5 million left on his contract, he turned back to what he knew best.
Hard work.
While other players holidayed he stayed at home, worked on his aerobic capacity, stripped 3-5kg from an already lean frame and turned himself into a wingman.
Former captain Matthew Pavlich, who will attend Mayne and Nicholas’ wedding in October, has so much admiration for a player who has never had it easy.
“It was a very challenging year for him personally with everything that was going on,” Pavlich told the Herald Sun this week.
“I think he really had to look inside himself and look at the people around him at the footy club, and work out where his allies were.
“He didn’t have a huge amount. It’s great he’s finally got an opportunity and he’s playing well.
“You can see Nathan Buckley has made a whole heap of changes to his approach and Chris is one of the beneficiaries.
“That relationship (with Buckley) needed mending and it is a credit to both of them they have been able to put it behind them and make it successful.”
Mayne could have been forgiven for spending his season in the VFL last year believing he had been sold a pup.
Considering his options at the end of 2016 as rivals circled, he was enticed by Buckley and Graeme Allen with plans to make him a hard-tackling general of the Pies forward line, almost a captain of that area of the ground.
Allen walked out of the meeting blown away by his football IQ, labelling him a future AFL coach.
Yet by Round 4 he was dropped, not to return, amid increasing frustration and then the flashpoint.
Buckley said in a post-season radio interview there were a few things “mixed up” in his recruitment as the club’s football bosses changed, with “a few things that happened there that weren’t ideal”.
Then came the kicker: “It’s been a tough year for Mayney and we’ve got some decisions to make going forward with that, but that hasn’t been a great result in the first 12 months.”
Back in WA, father Steve erupted on Twitter, saying his son had been thrown under the bus and labelling Buckley’s claims “Bulls---”.
Mayne has mostly declined media interviews this year, justifiably upset at the torching he received last year.
But in a rare post-match chat this year he said instead of sooking, he decided to drop that weight to play lighter but also help build an engine to play midfield.
It took until Round 6 for Mayne to get his chance, one of three inclusions as the Pies freshened up with a short break after Anzac Day.
As Collingwood midfield coach Robert Harvey said, he does exactly what is asked of him in the side.
“Obviously from where he’s come from last year, he is fitting in really well and playing that wing role and getting forward a bit. It’s a credit to him,’’ he said.
“He does a lot of stuff which isn’t seen externally as much as it is internally and the players and coaches really value what he does. He is finding a really solid place in our team.
“Sometimes his stuff on the stats sheet isn’t as high as others, but defensively he does things that we rate so highly.
“It can be the little knock-ons, he has a really high football IQ.
“It’s one of the higher ones you come into contact with — just his little things position-wise, where he sets up. It’s an advantage to have those guys in your team, it’s almost that coaching out on the ground which is so important.”
A player who kicked 39 goals in 2012 and 37 in 2013 for Fremantle only has three for the year, but is playing the kind of selfless role the Pies recruited him for.
Pavlich has seen a mate mature in front of his eyes, finding a way to conform to a club’s expectations.
“He is a real character. He was an only child and in some ways when he first came in when things were not going his way he would come in moping around the place,” Pavlich said.
“When things were going well and he was going well he was the life of the party and was making the most noise.
“He learned to balance his emotions through his career and became one of our most valuable and reliable contributors. You could trust him running down the race.”
Mayne has only recently become a vegan, with Pavlich crediting his fiance with providing him support and advice in tough times.
“Britt has played a huge role in his off-field stuff, from his diet to off-field pursuits and stuff. You have people come into your life who shape it in different way.
“Football is challenging in terms of the scrutiny and public outcry that goes with it. It’s really challenging.
“At the same time he chose to go to a club with free agency and it’s so exposed in the media, so sometimes you have to be a big boy and move on.”
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Originally published as Chris Mayne has become one of Collingwood’s most reliable players after a difficult first season with the Magpies
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