Sandringham signing Tom Lamb hopes ‘enjoyment’ can help revive his AFL career

TOM Lamb will wear the No 23 jumper for Sandringham, just as his grandfather Ian Cooper did four decades earlier for the Zebras.

Ian Cooper doesn’t give too much away.

But Tom Lamb says his grandfather is chuffed he will be playing at Sandringham in the VFL this year.

More than four decades after Cooper wore Sandy colours, Lamb, back in Melbourne after three years with West Coast Eagles, will do the same.

And he’ll do it in the No 23 jumper that the man he calls “Pop’’ wore in a 56-game, 283-goal career for the Zebras in the old VFA.

Cooper is sure to be watching his every move.

When Lamb was playing junior football, his grandfather, a member of St Kilda’s 1966 premiership team, drove him to games and without fail gave him $5 after them. He liked to sit away from the crowds to avoid derisive comments about his grandson.

Lamb, 21, lights up like a lamp as he recalls those days. The two are particularly close; Lamb and his mother lived with his grandparents for a few years from the age of “two or three’’.

“Pop tries to act like he doesn’t worry about that sort of stuff but deep down he’s really happy,’’ Lamb said of the Sandy link.

“But he’ll get his Saturday afternoons back where he can come and watch me.

“So hopefully he can take me to all my games this year and I get a few more five-buck notes.’’

Tom Lamb training with the Saints in November.

After three unfulfilled and frustrating years at West Coast Eagles, Lamb is happy to have returned to his family and friends in the bayside area.

He had a thin time of it in the west. Drafted from the Dandenong Stingrays with selection No 32 in the 2014 national draft, the 193cm right-footer played the first game of the 2015 season. He hasn’t been seen at AFL level since.

Lamb said his first year at the Eagles was blighted by a knee injury. The next two were soured by homesickness and a lack of form and enjoyment. Football became a grind.

“It had its ups and downs over there,’’ he was saying this morning over coffee at his favourite haunt, Main Street Cafe n Mordialloc.

“Obviously I met a lot of new mates and I had a good host family and some good coaches and that. But I’m definitely glad to be back and enjoying life a lot more. I’m a lot happier. Probably didn’t work out the way I wanted. Combination of things really, obviously my own form being one, a hard team to crack into being two, missing my family another thing. ’’

Lamb had just turned 18 when he headed to Perth. “Looking back, that’s pretty young. Got my licence and off I went. I missed home a lot, plenty of times. There were many times I just wanted to get on a plane and come home,’’ he said.

“Thanks to my host family and my own family flying over when they could, it kept me over there. It was hard being on the other side of the country. If it was Sydney or Adelaide you could probably cope a bit easier. It being Perth, the family couldn’t get over there much as they wanted and I couldn’t get over here as much as I wanted.’’

Tom Lamb playing for Dandenong Stingrays.

As Lamb talked, an elderly woman approached and asked if he was Dyson Heppell. Lamb laughed. And he laughed again when he said no, he wasn’t, and the woman said she’d better go “because you’re not famous enough for me’’. But she said she’d follow his progress at Sandringham.

Lamb said the Zebras, being coached this year by former Carlton and St Kilda forward Aaron Hamill, were a motivated group of players and had high training standards.

He’s been surprised by the fitness program.

“I reckon the running we do at Sandy is harder than what we did at West Coast,’’ he said.

“There’s not as much training, but the running rates right up there, I would have thought.’’

Lamb was a sought-after player when he returned from Perth and spent a couple of weeks training with St Kilda. Valuing his versatility, Frankston, returning to the VFL after sitting out the 2017 season, was particularly keen on him. But Lamb said his grandfather’s Sandy connection, his time at the Saints and the short drive from Aspendale to the Trevor Barker Oval made it an easy decision to join the Zebras.

Tom Lamb at Main Street Cafe in Mordialloc this morning.

When he got back from Perth he had more than his share of late nights catching up with people.

Since Sandy had been training, he said, he’d made football a focus again, was enjoying it and was eager to do well in the VFL.

He’s eyeing a second chance at the AFL but he did note that “once you’re out of the system, it’s hard to get back in’’.

“I’ll be interested to see how I go in an environment where I’m really enjoying it and I don’t find it a chore,’’ he said. “If I do manage to have a good year, that will be the main reason why, purely enjoyment.’’

And old Zebra Ian Cooper will doubtless enjoy watching his grandson in the No 23 Sandringham strip.

Tom Lamb (middle) with Edithvale-Aspendale juniors teammates Daniel Capiron and Jack Holden after they made the Victorian schoolboys team in 2011.