Danny Roach: How Collingwood’s former top-10 pick rebuilt his life after a shattered footy dream

Danny Roach went from realising his dream of being drafted to quitting football within two years. The former Magpie tells ANDY BELLAIRS how he rebuilt his life after a chastening AFL experience.

Danny Roach has opened up on his brief Collingwood career, 25 years on.

Danny Roach was 19 and washed up. It was early 2002 and Collingwood’s No.7 draft pick from 1999 had just told coach Mick Malthouse and football operations manager Neil Balme that he was quitting the game.

“It felt like my life was over, that I’d just thrown it all away”

His AFL dream had become a waking nightmare of isolation, injury and worsening mental health.

“I’d got to a point where I didn’t want to be there,” Roach told the Herald Sun recently of his short-lived AFL career, which began 25 years ago.

“I couldn’t be there, I couldn’t even picture just going back to training.”

Former Magpie Danny Roach today.

And so he walked away.

It was the culmination of two difficult years. Roach’s commitment and fitness were questioned in his first year as his still-developing body struggled to meet the demands of AFL football.

“I was as skinny as a rake,” he told the Herald Sun.

“I was struggling to play a position in the reserves … I was just getting belted.”

A young Danny Roach after being drafted by Collingwood.

A scene from The Club, which played out just like Danny Roach’s AFL debut.

His second year began more promisingly, a pre-season game against Sydney (“best game I played in Collingwood colours”) set him up for a debut.

And in true Malthouse fashion, he couldn’t have picked a bigger stage: Friday night, against a preliminary final-bound Richmond in front of 78,000 at the MCG. And to top it off, he was starting in the centre square, lined-up on Tigers captain Wayne Campbell.

“Mick’s philosophy was just, well, if you’re good enough to be in the team, you’re in, that’s your job you’re in as a tagger so get in there and tag,” Roach recalled.

“Some run with that and then some don’t.

“It was pretty overwhelming, I didn’t handle that first game too well and I don’t really have any memories of it now.”

Roach has recalled telling Mick Malthouse and Neil Balme he was quitting football.

In a situation straight out of The Club – where the gun recruit from Tasmania is dragged early in his first game – Malthouse called Roach to the bench after just 10 minutes of the first quarter.

But unlike the happy ending for Geoff Hayward and the Pies in Williamson’s iconic play and movie, Roach was never seen at AFL level again.

He also can’t help but think what might have been had he been just a couple of years later when Malthouse was at the forefront of the rotations boom in AFL games.

“If it was a few years later I might’ve got back on, I might’ve had a handful of kicks, done something decent,” Roach mused.

“Who knows, I might’ve kept my spot. Do I then just have a lot more confidence even though my body starts to go?”

And just a month on from his debut, Danny Roach’s body started to fail him in a big way.

A debilitating hip injury caused by overworking his still developing frame left him unable to run, and drained what little confidence he had left in his body.

“I was drafted to be running, jumping, mobile key forward and now I can’t even run and turn and I’ve got no strength.”

After departing Victoria Park, Roach was in mourning for what he’d left behind, but couldn’t bring himself to even think about footy.

He credits his now-wife and her family with helping him find his feet again.

“They were amazing – they were just like ‘Live here for a bit and sort yourself out’,” he said.

And, little by little, Roach rebuilt his life and came to terms with what he’d gone through.

Seeing former Hawk and Kangaroo Jonathon Hay talking about his own mental health challenges years later was a light bulb moment.

“He was like ‘I couldn’t unpack my footy bag’ and I realised I had the exact same story,” Roach said. “But it was 10 years later when I started to figure out what’s going on.”

Roach also gradually fell back in love with footy and even played again with VAFA club St Bernards in the late 2000s.

Josh Fraser, Damien Adkins, Tarkyn Lockyer and Danny Roach in 2000.

“Mick Overman was the president and Simon Madden was coach,” he remembered.

“Simon was brilliant, he said ‘just come and train and just hang out with the boys and then you can work out what you want to do.’

“He said you just find yourself and just find your footy club again.”

Roach is still a keen Pies fan, something he credits to the support of the club and hard work of Keith Burns and Gavin Crosisca at the Collingwood Past Players and Officials group.

And Eddie McGuire.

“Years later I’d go down to the (Collingwood) rooms and say ‘I feel a bit weird coming down’ and (Eddie) would say ‘no, you’re a Pie for life, you pulled on the jumper. That’s that. It doesn’t matter what happened. You’re a Pies man’,” Roach said.

Danny Roach in black and white.

Roach playing for Collingwood’s then-VFL affiliate Williamstown in 2001.

And Neil Balme continued to help out as Roach continued to rebuild his life.

“He stayed in touch, if I was getting a bottle shop job when I was at uni, Balmey was a reference for me” Roach remembers with a laugh.

“I got my second government job because somebody goes ‘oh, Balmey, I want to give him a call!’”

Roach is also coaching, leading the Bernards’ junior girls – including his daughter – for the past couple of footy seasons.

“I like to think I can teach you how to play footy, but also I like to think I bring a good perspective to footy,” he said.

Josh Fraser, Damien Adkins, Tarkyn Lockyer and Danny Roach thank Sandra Andrae for looking after them.

These days, Danny Roach has a very healthy perspective of what he went through 25 years ago.

“It would have been good if I made a different decision, but I couldn’t at the time,” he said.

“I can wish whatever I want, but I wasn’t equipped at the time to be able to do that. I was in a really bad way and who knows where that might’ve gone?”

“I went away, I went to uni, got my undergrad, my masters (degree), have worked in government now for a long time, I have a beautiful family, two kids.”

“I’m now 43 and with what I’ve got, what do I regret? Nothing.”

Originally published as Danny Roach: How Collingwood’s former top-10 pick rebuilt his life after a shattered footy dream