Matt Rowell was always driven to make it in the AFL
Matt Rowell was touted as a future AFL player when he was in the under-10s at Canterbury Cobras. His parents discuss the expectations their son has carried during his junior career.
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It was one of the first times Matt Rowell stepped onto a football field.
He was in the under-10s at Canterbury Cobras but observers were quick to notice his talent.
“We’ve spent all of his junior career putting a lid on it,” Rowell’s father, David, revealed”
“There were hundreds of incidents I could tell you about at junior football where people have come up to him and gone, ‘You’re going to play AFL one day’.”
Expectation has accompanied the likely No. 1 AFL draft pick throughout his career.
Rowell, 18, won five consecutive Yarra Junior Football League best and fairest medals and finished runner-up in another.
A bookcase was built for his bedroom to showcase his awards.
His mother, Louise, says “expectations for Matt were always here”, raising her hand above her head.
She shared a story from an under-10s basketball game when an opposition coach told his players to “take out No. 11, which was him (pointing to Matt).”
“He’s had expectation on him since he was 10,” Louise said.
“He made the under-12 state football team as a bottom-age kid. From then on, everyone expects you to play a certain way so I’m really proud he has continued to work hard on his game and keep rising up to the challenge, because that’s not easy.”
Rowell took it in his stride.
“There was a bit of expectation like that but I enjoyed that and going out there trying to play the best I could,” he said.
Rowell was encouraged to play a variety of sports.
There was a basketball club championship with best mate Noah Anderson, and Western Bulldogs player Ed Richards was his first tennis double partner.
“Two redheads!” Louise quipped.
But football quickly became a priority.
“He always loved having a ball in his hand but footy was always his passion,” she said.
“He would be up at 6am on football mornings with his mouthguard in and with his jumper on.”
Rowell was born in Sydney but grew up in Melbourne and fell in love with Australian rules.
“Sport makes sense to Matt and footy especially,” Louise said.
“Everything makes sense to Matt when he is on a footy field. He looks happy and like he’s in his element.”
Three football garden gnomes line the path to the family’s Mont Albert front door.
Matt is glued to Fox Footy. The 2014 preliminary final between Hawthorn and Port Adelaide is showing.
“This game is done, you know who wins!” Louise said midway through the interview.
Some of the family’s earliest memories of Matt’s football is Auskick at Mont Albert Oval.
“As soon as he was able to, I took him up there and it was those Saturday mornings when it was freezing cold,” David said.
“You’d often have kids in tears because they couldn’t feel their hands and they were freezing cold but he’d be bouncing home going, ‘That was fun’.”
There was always a focus on Rowell but the family has encouraged his passion for the sport.
“I think it’s been helped by the way he is,” David said.
“He’s naturally got his feet on the ground. There’s never really been a situation where we’ve had to tell him to pull his head in.
“That’s not the way he’s built. He’s a very humble person.”
Louise noted: “It’s pretty important you’re a good person first.
“It’s lovely he might be able to do what he loves to do, that’s what we are happiest about.”
David and Louise’s greatest joys as parents have been watching their children play sport (Jessica, 21, is the protective big sister and Maggie, 14, has played in multiple premierships with Kew Comets).
Both are life members at Canterbury Cobras, filling various roles as Matt came through the grades.
It’s where he learnt the importance of community, Louise said.
“This year he has gone down and helped out because that’s what other people did for him,” she said.
“Obviously he had a little bit of talent and they nurtured that.”
Matt said returning to assist training and presenting trophies at the club’s awards function was his way of thanking those who helped him.
“I just wanted to repay the favour,” he said.
“They put so much time and effort into me and helping me when I was back at that age.”
It would be a shock if Rowell and Anderson weren’t selected by Gold Coast Suns with opening two picks in Wednesday night’s AFL draft.
There’s a range of emotions for the family but mostly excitement.
“It’s the culmination of everything we have just been talking about,” David said.
“Everybody says it is just the start but it’s a time to appreciate that it takes a hell of a lot to even get to the start line — and be really happy he is realising his dream. Not every 18-year-old gets to do that.”
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Louise said Maggie had already claimed his bedroom.
“We’ll miss him a lot,” she said.
“Nowhere is too far. We’ll rack up the frequent flyer points.”
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