College basketballer Michael Knoll earns spot on Box Hill’s VFL list despite having never played football

BASKETBALLER Michael Knoll has gone from having never touched a football to landing a spot on a VFL list.

Mitchell Knoll in action for Kilsyth’s SEABL outfit last year. Picture: Steve Tanner

BASKETBALLER Michael Knoll has gone from having never touched a football to landing a spot on a VFL list.

The 203cm, 100kg centre and power forward has given away basketball to pursue a football career.

The Kilsyth resident’s first competitive game was just a few weeks ago in a practice game for Box Hill, who have included the 24-year-old on their 2017 list.

Knoll’s basketball career took him all the way to America’s college system, where he spent four seasons, including one as captain, at St Ambrose University in Iowa.

When Knoll returned to Australia last year, he tried to get his foot in the door at an NBL club.

But when that didn’t work out he decided he would take a punt and give footy a go.

While Knoll is still trying to bed down the fundamentals, he knew his towering height would been seen as an advantage when he arrived at Box Hill City Oval.

“My brother was always on my case about giving footy a crack once I finished college basketball,” Knoll said.

“I sent an email out to Box Hill saying I was interested in playing.”

Box Hill offered him the opportunity to come down for a training session last year before inviting him back for the pre-season, where he suitably impressed.

Box Hill football manager Stewart Ward, who first received that email from Knoll, said he showed enough natural ability to earn a spot on the Hawks’ list.

“His ability to read the ball, compete and as basketballers do, that peripheral vision they seem to have to know what is going on around them to give themselves that little bit of time and space,” Ward said.

“We had some pretty honest conversations that it was going to be a journey for him and I know he has aspirations to try and break into AFL.”

His basketball career was a meteoric rise — just a couple of years after first playing representative basketball at Kilsyth he was plying his trade in the States.

He’s now hoping his football career will follow a similar path.

“I didn’t really know what to expect but once I got into things and I felt pretty confident in the pre-season so I was hopeful I would get a spot in the end,” he said.

“I’m thankful they gave me a chance.”