NAB League Boys: Dandenong Stingray Mac Andrew called into AFL Academy team

It’s been a speedy rise through the ranks of the NAB League Boys for 200cm Dandenong Stingrays player Mac Andrew.

Dandenong Stingray Mac Andrew swoops on the ball against GWV Rebels at Queen Elizabeth Oval. Pic: AFL Photos

Mac Andrew can’t quite come to terms with his rise in the NAB League Boys this year.

As he sees it, he’s just gone out and done what he did in junior football, ran around and tried to get a kick.

The attention he’s receiving after three matches for the Dandenong Stingrays “shocks’’ him.

More of it will come in the next few days after the 200cm Andrew was called up to the AFL Academy team to play the Geelong VFL side at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong on Saturday morning.

Stingrays coach Nick Cox had suggested to him on Monday that he might be a chance to play.

Confirmation came that night when Academy coach Tarkyn Lockyer phoned him at his Cranbourne home.

Lockyer casually asked the 17-year-old what he had planned for next weekend.

Andrew replied that he would watch a bit of local football and maybe go to the Richmond and Melbourne AFL game.

“I’ve got a better idea …. Why don’t you come and play for the national academy?’’ Lockyer asked him.

A ruckman who plays like a rover: Mac Andrew on the move for the Stingrays. Pic: AFL Photos

“I was stoked,’’ Andrew, a Year 12 student at St Josephs College in Ferntree Gully, said last night.

“Yeah, just really stoked.’’

As for his emergence this year, he said: “It’s taken me by surprise. Shock. I’ve just gone out and played my natural game and all of a sudden I’m getting recognition. I didn’t think I was doing anything special. Like I said, I’ve just tried to play my natural game, running and getting a kick.’’

He said the standard of the NAB League Boys had also surprised him, with its pace and physicality.

“Going from local footy and school footy, big difference … as soon as you get the ball there’s pressure on you straight away,’’ he said.

Andrew is one of seven children in his family and was born in a refugee camp in Egypt, his parents having fled South Sudan a few years earlier.

They came to Australia in 2005.

Mac followed his eldest brother, Makuei, into football, first at South Wantirna and then Berwick, when the family moved from Knoxfield to Cranbourne seven years ago.

A stand-out in Berwick’s junior teams, mainly as a wingman, he starred in the V Line series and was included in the Stingrays’ Under 16 program.

At that point, he said, he began to take football seriously.

“I thought maybe I could go somewhere with it,’’ he said.

Mac Andrew springs for a tap. Pic: AFL Photos

Andrew linked with the Melbourne Next Generation Academy at the end of 2018 and made the NAB League squad last year as a bottom-ager but the season never went ahead. He kept a ball close through COVID-19, getting in a lockdown kick with mates whenever he could.

Andrew said his parents enjoyed watching him play football, and he enjoyed that they followed him. He appreciates their support.

“My parents, they’ve done a great job,’’ he said.

Cox said Andrew, like a lot of NAB League Boys, was an unknown heading into 2021 but the club saw some signs of his ability in a practice match at Garfield.

He opened the season with a 22-possession performance against Gippsland Power, setting off interest in him.

“His continual improvement has been fairly rapid, and it’s a credit to the way he’s conducted himself and gone about his footy,’’ Cox said.

“He’s got a lot of ability. He plays like a fourth onballer. And when he’s in the ruck he goes forward and catches it really well. He’s developing in all aspects of his game.’’

Cox called “Big Mac’’ a “quiet, humble kid, doesn’t say too much, just gets on with his business … they’re the ones you like to see go well.’’

Andrew is one of 14 Victorian players who will line up for the AFL Academy against the VFL Cats.