How Swans star Tom Papley is following in grandfather Max’s footsteps
Swans sharpshooter Tom Papley is starring for the red and the white after being given a belated chance in the big league. As it turns out, grandad Max, who is about to turn 80, did the same thing — but with a little less show than terrific Tom.
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Often brilliantly and always entertainingly, Tom Papley is kicking goals for the Sydney Swans this year.
His form has cheered his grandfather and former Swans best and fairest Max Papley, who turns 80 this Friday.
He’ll mark the milestone with far less of a celebration than sparky Swan Tom has been putting on in front of goal.
“He’s an annoying little bugger, isn’t he?’’ Papley said with a laugh on Monday.
“I love to him to see him kicking them, but oh geez, the way he carries on! No, it’s all good fun. We’re all just proud of him.’’
They speak once a week, usually on Friday nights, with Tom valuing the advice of a man he calls “Pap’’.
Last year he kicked five goals in a match against West Coast Eagles and thought he had got one up on his grandfather. Max reminded him he had once kicked five goals in a game for South Melbourne — out of the centre.
Papley senior has watched with great pride as Tom has become one of the game’s premier forwards.
Who would have thought the little fellow from Gippsland would ever lead a Coleman Medal?
Not the recruiters who twice overlooked him in national drafts. He returned to Gippsland Power as a 19-year-old in 2015, played three games for Casey in the VFL, starred in an AFL Victoria Young Guns game and was eventually taken as a rookie.
“Peter Francis (former Gippsland Power region manager) said to me on several occasions, ‘I can’t believe they’re not picking this kid up’,’’ Papley said.
“He said, ‘Will he come back as a 19-year-old?’ I said it was up to Peter. I said, ‘It would give him a chance’. And of course once he did that he had a few standout games. Even then he had to go through the rookie system. That’s the way it goes. It’s turning out well for him.’’
Papley thought his grandson had the talent but over the years he’d seen a lot of Gippsland Power players he assessed as good enough to make it never get the chance.
“There’s a lot of luck involved in it, mate, and in the end luck fell his way a little bit,’’ he said. “I was pretty confident he could go all right … at the moment some people are saying he’s one of the best in the competition but I tend to be a little more critical than that.’’
Just as Tom knew frustration early in his career, his grandfather had suffered setbacks.
Born and bred in South Melbourne, he would drop in to the league club’s training nights and “absolutely loved the place’’.
Two years behind Bob Skilton at South Melbourne Tech, he would have given his right arm to play for the Swans.
“I couldn’t get across quick enough to train for their fourths,’’ he said.
“My first training night, the coach said, ‘You’re too small son, go away and come back when you grow’. It broke my heart at that stage. I think I was 14.’’
Papley imagined he would head for Port Melbourne but his mother shifted to Moorabbin, and he joined the local VFA club.
A few years later the Swans were far more enthusiastic about him.
By then he had grown, into a star of the association. He captained the 1963 Moorabbin premiership team, kicking six goals from centre half forward in the grand final against Sandringham.
Moorabbin was thrown out of the competition at the end of that season and Papley got a belated chance at South.
In his first year of league football he topped the club’s goalkicking (his grandson did the same 55 years later).
His best and fairest came in 1966, ending a run of five consecutive wins for triple Brownlow Medal champion Skilton. Papley worshipped him. “For talent, for skill, for everything, he was just amazing,’’ he said.
After 59 games over four seasons, Papley crossed to Williamstown in the VFA, a dispute with South over his cricket commitments at Moorabbin prompting him to leave the league scene.
He regards his time with the Towners as the most enjoyable of his sporting career.
As captain-coach he led Willy to the 1969 Division 2 premiership. The club later named him in its team of the century and in 2017 elevated him to legend status in the hall of fame.
“I loved my time at South, please don’t get me wrong, but Williamstown was at another level,’’ he said.
“I coached there and I was given a responsibility and role to play and it all adds up to the enjoyment of what you do. It comes back to the people, and the people at that club were magic. I loved it.’’
More 50 years after he finished with league football, Papley gets a kick out of watching the game, particularly when Tom is bouncing around forward lines like a pinball.
He calls it’s a different game “all together’’. In his era players were footballers. Now they’re athletes and footballers, with “quite amazing’’ skills.
But he doesn’t like everything he sees.
“This business of packs forming and players jumping on one another and holding the ball in, well you’re penalising the player underneath if he’s not pushing it out,’’ Papley said.
“But you don’t penalise the bloke all over his back and keeping the all in. This third man in … I watched a couple of games yesterday and the number of times there was a player wrestling with another over the ball and a third man came in and dived over the top of both of them … why don’t they penalise him?’’
To prevent congestion, Papley would put a line across the centre, preventing all forwards from pushing up the ground.
He would also ban players from taking possession of the ball if they’re not on their feet, and pay free kicks against those taking on tacklers.
“But I’m almost 80 years old, mate. They won’t listen to me,’’ he said.
As for his birthday, Papley had made big plans, booking a place in the northern beaches in Sydney.
But COVID-19 is keeping him and his wife, Laraine, in Bunyip in Gippsland.
They’ll save the celebrating for when they reach their 60th wedding anniversary next February. A month later Laraine will turn 80.
“We’re hoping to have a major get-together for the family then,’’ he said.
And the Papley family is also hoping for the goals to keep coming for terrific Tom.
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