North Heidelberg’s Michael Florance switches basketball for football with growing confidence in NFL Division 2

GEELONG’S Mark Blicavs or Collingwood’s Mason Cox are recent examples of athletes transitioning successfully from another sport to Australian rules. Now, it’s North Heidelberg’s Michael Florance.

Geelong’s Mark Blicavs or Collingwood’s Mason Cox are recent examples of athletes transitioning successfully from another sport to Australian rules.

And, you can add North Heidelberg’s Michael Florance to that mix.

Before the start of the 2015 Northern Football League season, Florance had played half a game of Aussie rules – filling in for the Year 9 team at his Adelaide secondary school one lunch break about 12 years ago.

Now, with one season and eight games in the bank, 27-year-old Florance is, arguably, the premier ruckman in Division 2.

Runner-up to mercurial midfielder Shane Harvey in the Bulldogs’ senior best and fairest vote count in his first season, the 195cm Florance had moved to Melbourne for a landscaping project manager job less than a year ­earlier.

“Basketball had been my main focus since the age of five,” Florance told the Leader.

A regular in underage state representative sides, who knocked back the offer of a full basketball scholarship at Long Island University in New York, Florance was also a member of the Adelaide 36ers’ under-23 development squad for three seasons, while playing with Southern Tigers in South Australia’s Central Australian Basketball League between 2008 and 2014, including three years as ­captain.

“I always enjoyed watching football – especially the Crows – and I always wondered whether I could play the game,” Florance said.

“When the chance came, I saw it as a good challenge.”

Elder brother Dave, himself a basketball wiz who was awarded an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship as a teenager, found his way to North Heidelberg in 2013 as the No.1 ruckman after earlier stints with the Northern Bullants reserves in the VFL.

So, when Michael landed in town, the dream the brothers always had of finally playing a game of footy together was getting closer – that is, if Michael could crack it for a game.

Michael Florance (right) in action during his basketball days. Picture: Morne de Klerk

“It really was Dave’s guidance that helped me learn the game,” Florance said.

“I’m still learning. Mostly it’s around the ground stuff, like running to the wrong spots and using your body to advantage.”

The Florance brothers got to play eight games together at the start of last year, with Dave mainly staying up forward as his well-worn 30-year-old knees started to give way.

“Dave retired after Round 8, but it was still great to finally play together,” Florance said.

The rest, as they say, is history with Florance becoming more confident as each game progressed and with a full footy pre-season under his belt.

“It’s definitely the fittest I’ve ever been,” he said. “With a football pre-season, you can’t cheat, you just do the work.”

Florance also dropped from 105kg to 96kg at the start of last year, a change that had him feeling “lighter on my feet” but with a need to work on “developing more leg strength”.

“The confidence the coach (Stephen Saddington) has in me is great,” he said.

It’s a confidence that has rubbed off on Florance, especially when he’s in the middle with Harvey at his feet.

“When Shane’s around and I can get it anywhere near him from the ruck contest, something happens,” he said.