AFL draft: Fergus Greene pushes second-chance hopes with standout season with Box Hill Hawks

Ex-Western Bulldog Fergus Greene stands as one of the VFL’s best draft hopes after his 30-goal season with the Hawks.

Fergus Greene knocks over a goal for Box Hill Hawks. Pic: Kadek Thatcher

Five AFL games in four years.

A few injuries.

A lot of frustration.

And questions unanswered.

That’s where it stood for Fergus Greene when he left the Western Bulldogs at the end of 2020.

He relished his time as a Dog, but he came out of the club unsure if he was good enough to play league football.

There had been bits and pieces, flashes in the forward line, to suggest he was.

But in his mind the question was ultimately unanswered. He still thinks about it. It hangs over him like a hospital handball.

Greene, 23, joined the Box Hill Hawks after departing the Bulldogs and in nine games in the VFL this year he kicked 30.14.

Fergus Greene’s nine VFL games brought him 30 goals this year. Pic: Kadek Thatcher

It was enough to get a few AFL recruiters to take another look at the rangy 187cm forward.

One assessed him as “a bit too good for the VFL’’.

His season tally included bags of six against Gold Coast Suns and five against Sandringham and Collingwood. And it encouraged him to persist with his football and work towards an answer to that question: was he unlucky or was he not good enough?

“Yeah, I’d love to get back on a list,’’ Greene said.

“It was really disappointing to finish up at the Dogs the way it did. In 2019, I pretty much missed the whole year with injury and then with 2020 there was no VFL because of Covid so I couldn’t really get my game going in the reserves to get a call-up.

“It was frustrating to leave things like that. That’s why it was nice to have a reasonable year with Box Hill Hawks, just so I could say, ‘I’m still around the level’. It’s given me a bit more of, ‘I really want to get back now’.’’

Fergus Greene training with the Western Bulldogs in 2020.

He said there had been a “little bit’’ of interest from AFL clubs ahead of the drafts. “You always want more,’’ he said.

But, as he found out when he was coming through the Bendigo Pioneers, he said it was hard to judge where he stood.

Greene was the No 70 selection in the 2016 national draft, taken by Bulldogs recruiter Simon Dalrymple.

In his first year with the Dogs he broke his wrist. In his second year he broke through for five AFL games.

Ahead of 2019 the Dogs gave him a one-year contract extension. The new deal came with some honeyed words from list and recruiting manager Sam Power.

“Fergus has impressed us over the past couple of years with how his game has developed,” Power said.

“He got a taste of AFL football at the end of last season and looked comfortable at the level, and has carried that form into the pre-season.

“Fergus has good forward craft and knows how to hit the scoreboard, while he’s also a strong overhead mark and a good runner. We’re looking forward to watching him improve again this year, and continuing to push to play senior football.”

Fergus Greene playing for the Western Bulldogs in 2018.

It wasn’t to be. He missed most of the season through injury – he broke an ankle in a VFL game against Collingwood – and got in only four matches for the VFL Dogs.

And that was that. With the 2020 VFL season hearing no starting siren, he spent most of the year in the “bubble’’. Then he was delisted – and frustrated.

“I had one full season when I was there (the Western Bulldogs),’’ Greene said. “My first year, I think I played six games. I missed a few with ribs and a broken arm. My third year, I played three or four. I just couldn’t seem to get my body right, but it was always freak accidents, never a soft-tissue. Like, you’d come down in a marking contest and land awkwardly and all of a sudden you’d be out for eight weeks.

“I think that was the frustrating thing when I look back on my time there. If I had four clean years and I knew I wasn’t good enough, that would be OK. But I feel a lot was left on the table because I couldn’t get myself out there and play. I’m not bitter about how everything went, because at the end of the day I was really lucky to play at highest level. I felt I contributed quite well when I played at the level. So, yeah, it eats into you that tiny bit, where you go, ‘Geez I’d just love to play one more game and show everyone I’m still at the level’. I’m curious about it.’’

Fergus Greene (middle) celebrates a Bulldogs victory.

Box Hill Hawks called Greene three days after he was cut.

Hawks GM Daniel Napoli has a nice eye for a player and is hot on the horn when it comes to recruiting, and although Greene was living at Yarraville, he decided on a move east.

The prospect of playing under Sam Mitchell outweighed the 40-minute drive.

It was a good decision; he led goalkicking for a team that finished third on a tweaked ladder in a truly bizarre VFL season.

“Whether I got picked up from it or not, I knew I was going to get good experience from a couple of coaches, Sam and ‘Collo’ (Andy Collins),’’ he said. “I thought it would be beneficial. It has been.’’

He’d never met Mitchell before he joined the Hawks. But he quickly warmed to him.

Mitchell would sometimes ring him during the day. Greene’s first thought was that the coach was going to tell him that he wasn’t happy with his training or he was going to be dropped. No. He was just ringing for a chat.

“I’ve never had a relationship with a coach as I’ve had with Sam,’’ he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better coach.’’

At half forward for the Hawks, Greene was constantly on the move. And in his marking he found a groove.

He felt it was somewhere like it was before he had a shoulder reconstruction at the end of 2019. “I’d lost a bit of confidence in it,’’ he said. “It was sort of nice, off a clean pre-season, to come into the year and have a lot of confidence when I was flying for a contest that I could come down with it. Good to have that feeling again.’’

Fergus Greene played five AFL games.

Describing himself as a “late developer’’, he has far more trust in his body now than when he was 18 or 19. And he said he was stronger mentally too.

“I’ve got some job security and I really like my work … it would really hurt if I wasn’t picked up but it wouldn’t be the end of the world, like I thought it would be when I was 18,’’ he said.

Greene is on the payroll at ACCO Brands, which manufactures office products.

“I’m a pen salesman, to a degree,’’ he said with a laugh.

Hopefully he’ll be using one to sign a new AFL contract for 2022.