Paul Chapman says his rejection from Geelong still hurts

WHEN you are as proud and naturally competitive as Paul Chapman, rejection seriously hurts.

Jon Anderson

2 min read

October 28, 2013 - 7:29PM

HeraldSun

Paul Chapman and Josh Hunt

Essendon

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WHEN you are as proud and naturally competitive as Paul Chapman, rejection seriously hurts.

Even now, six weeks after his coach Chris Scott couldn’t guarantee him a senior game, Chapman says he can’t fully understand why.

He reckons he probably never will, but will respect the man who made the hard call.

Bomber told me we can win it

“The talks about my future had been going on for 18 months,” Chapman said yesterday.

“Scotty has this thing about the Gold Coast and how there young boys will very soon have been playing for four, five and six years and how they are going to be a force.

“He needs his young blokes to do the same thing like we did 10 years ago.

“My thing to him was, ‘If I’m in your best side and can do things for the team, then how could I not be chosen?’.

“He said whether I was killing it or not I would still play a lot in the VFL. And that’s the part I don’t understand.”

Despite that significant point of difference, Chapman rates Scott highly as a coach and person.

He respects the way he relates to the new generation, one far removed from the Chapman mould.

“He was very honest with me all the way through and it was never, ‘We don’t need you or don’t want you’.

“Stephen Wells also had a say but that is fair enough because he picked me (selection 31 in the 1999 draft).

“I have huge respect for what the club has done for me but from now on they are the opposition.”

Chapman, 31, knows he played good football when his body allowed but claims a misdiagnosis of his hamstring injury prevented him from making it impossible for Geelong to delist him.

Had the injury been diagnosed correctly he believes he would have missed just three or four games, instead of four months.

Chapman kicked four goals in his last game, the semi-final win over Port Adelaide at the MCG, but the memory was soured by the suspension for a high bump on Robbie Gray that saw him miss the preliminary final loss to Hawthorn.

BEST PERSONAL MOMENT
“When I kicked that last-quarter goal against St Kilda in the 2009 Grand Final, the scream of the crowd was unbelievable. Normally you don’t hear much but it still sends goosebumps down me.”

FAVOURITE TEAMMATES
“Josh Hunt is my best friend from the club but as teammates it would be the reliable ones like Jimmy Bartel, Andrew Mackie and Joel Selwood. If it wasn’t your day then you knew they could pick up the slack.”

Paul Chapman and Josh Hunt

2008 GRAND FINAL
“Hawthorn was the in-form team of the finals series but we did a lot wrong and maybe our head space wasn’t where it was in 2007.”

2007 - THE TURNING POINT
“I did speak in the rooms after we lost to North in Round 5 and asked could we just give ourselves to the team for the next three weeks and not focus on ourselves. We learnt by doing that then everybody shines anyway. From then on the place did change.”

THE BUMP IN THE 2013 SEMI-FINAL
“There have been times where I tried to hurt blokes and got away with it. This one was such a nothing things and it wasn’t my intention to do anything. But because I was just off the ground it was judged worth two weeks if I challenged it. For that? It really hurt.”