Once a young gun: John Georgiou reflects on making his league debut for the Saints at age 16

HE stopped playing at age 28 but once-promising Saint John Georgiou is enjoying his coaching role at Mt Eliza in the Peninsula Football League.

John Georgiou (right), Aussie Jones and Dean Anderson relax in the rooms after a St Kilda victory in 1995.

JOHN  Georgiou has Mt Eliza sitting on top of the Peninsula league ladder, unbeaten after five rounds.

He is coaching well and enjoying the challenge of getting a talented side, featuring suburban goal maestro Justin Van Unen, to perform each week.

But don’t expect Georgiou to get ahead of himself. His own experiences won’t allow it.

Georgiou learned early in his football journey that an impressive start, while nice, does not guarantee sustained success.

This month, 23 years ago, Georgiou was the talk of the AFL after making his debut for St Kilda, aged 16 and 30 weeks.

He was the sixth youngest league player of all time.

Georgiou started as a half-forward, playing in a forward division that included Tony Lockett and Stewie Loewe. Nearby were Robert Harvey, Nicky Winmar and Nathan Burke.

Georgiou burst onto the scene, gathering almost 20 disposals in a sparkling first game against the Adelaide Crows at a packed Moorabbin.

“Plugger kicked 10 that day,” Georgiou recalled.

John Georgiou works the Mt Eliza huddle. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Saints fans, and presumably some officials, thought they had another Robert Harvey in their midst. At the after-game press conference, St Kilda coach Ken Sheldon poured praise on the new kid, saying he had “natural football intelligence”.

One newspaper article of the day wrote, tongue in cheek, that Georgiou was on track to break Michael Tuck’s 426-game record.

Yet, three years later his AFL career was over at age 19. He finished with 16 senior appearances, as well as 70-odd reserves games.

These days Georgiou leads a happy life with a young family. He’s not bitter about his fleeting St Kilda days. But he struggles to explain why he didn’t get a chance to play league footy into his 20s.

“I don’t know. That’s probably one of the things I am still not sure about,” he said last week.

“The first two years Ken Sheldon was the coach and I remember him saying to me the next year – I was doing Year 12 – he said, ‘You probably won’t play a lot of senior footy this year, just focus on getting through Year 12’.

“And that’s probably how it panned out. I didn’t play many games that year, and we were a strong side. I think there was a bit of a plan for me.

“Then there was a new coach. Ken had gone, a new coach was in and maybe the plans just changed as part of that. When I finished at St Kilda I was still only 20. You are only sort of getting started these days at 20.”

Georgiou, keen to get another opportunity, went to play in South Australia with Norwood. He remembers having “a really solid” season and AFL newcomer Port Adelaide showed interest in him – but nothing came of it.

So Georgiou returned home, joined the Frankston Dolphins and became a top-notch VFA (VFL) player, winning the 1999 Liston Trophy among many accolades.

Bad hips curtailed his playing career and he retired at 28.

A coaching career then began. A few months ago, Georgiou underwent hip replacement surgery at the age of only 40.

Asked if he was always destined to be a coach, he said, “no, never”.

“I finished at Frankston at 28, so having that competitiveness in you and a love for the game I guess coaching was the best way for me to stay involved,” he said.

John Georgiou ahead of the 1996 AFL season.

IT’S A FACT

■ John Georgiou was in Year 11 at St Bede’s College in Mentone when he was selected in St Kilda’s senior team in Round 7 of the 1992 season.

■ He was doing homework on a Thursday night when he got a phone call from Saints official Gary Colling with the news he’d been named in the side. He went to school the next day.

■ Georgiou played junior football at Parkmore in the Dandenong league alongside David Neitz, who went on to be a Melbourne champion. The pair were best friends and remain so today.

■ Georgiou attended Karingal High School but moved to Mentone Grammar on a cricket scholarship. After one year, he switched to St Bede’s.

■ Georgiou’s parents, Bill and Sophia, had a fish and chip shop in Frankston East. John’s brother Aki played Under-19s with Essendon and St Kilda the 1980s.