VFL 2018: Collingwood VFL defender Marty Hore is pushing for the AFL draft
AFTER another fine season in the VFL, Collingwood defender Marty Hore is front and centre in AFL draft discussions after receiving a state combine invite.
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MARTY Hore headed home after Collingwood’s enthralling VFL victory over Port Melbourne at North Port Oval last Saturday.
Home is Leitchville, in northern Victoria, and he enjoyed a couple of days on the family’s dairy farm. The Hores have been on the land for many years. They milk 400 cows on their 700 acres.
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“Went back down straight after the game at Port,’’ the 22-year-old Magpie defender was saying yesterday.
“My old man came down on the train from Pyramid Hill and he drove me home. Hadn’t been back there for eight weeks or so. Drove the tractor for the old man and had a look around, seeing that not much is growing. Need some rain.’’
Rain? He saw enough of it at North Port. Coming after a burst of hail, it hosed down in the third quarter, quickly saturating the ground.
Hore did what he’s done pretty much since he joined the Magpies from the Bendigo Pioneers in 2016. He took it in his long stride.
“Don’t think I’ve played in hail like that before,’’ he said with a laugh.
Port Melbourne attacked relentlessly in the final quarter but Hore and his housemate and former Bendigo Pioneers teammate Lachie Tardrew helped the Pies hold out the Borough.
Tardrew was named the Maggies’ best. Hore was fourth mentioned, the ninth time this season Collingwood has listed him in its top-six contributors. Such consistency has earned him an invitation to the state combine and attracted interest from a string of AFL clubs.
Hore also attended the 2017 state combine after winning Collingwood VFL’s best and fairest and gaining selection in the team of the year.
It was his breakthrough season and he did it stylishly with his left-foot kicking, shrewdly with his reading of the play and valuably with his intercept marking across half back.
Hore believes he’s ascended another level this year.
“I think I’ve had more of an influence on games, a bigger impact,’’ he said.
“I had three quiet weeks in the middle there where I struggled with an ankle. But I think my good games this year have been really good.’’
He’s averaging 17 kicks (he leads the competition comfortably for effective kicks), eight marks (only Werribee’s Sam Collins has taken more than Hore’s 120 grabs) and seven rebound 50s per game.
And with his stature as a leading VFL player he’s assumed more leadership with the Woods.
“We put it on him in that area,’’ Collingwood general manager Chris Dixon said. “He’s got a pivotal role in our backline and voice, communication, setting up, those things are important and he’s really taken that on.’’
Hore has also taken on sprint training one night per week under Bohdan Babijczuk. He says he’s “found a yard’’ in pace.
Dixon is unsurprised at Hore’s willingness to do the extras. He calls the defender a “pretty relaxed country kid’’ but notes “a really strong drive and will to improve’’.
“He’s doing everything in his power to try to get to the next level,’’ Dixon said.
Hore came through Leitchville-Gunbower — his father, Steve, won a league medal with Leitchville before it merged with Gunbower — and joined the Pioneers only for his 18-year-old season in the TAC Cup.
It took him time to adjust but the Bendigo club saw something and invited him back as a 19-year-old. Hore is thankful the Pioneers gave him the benefit of a second season.
“I put on a bit of size, got a lot fitter, started to play better,’’ he said.
Then-Pioneers coach Brett Henderson well remembers Hore’s first practice as a 19-year-old. “I thought, gee, this kid seems a mile off it,’’ Henderson said.
“But we gave him another go and he never played another bad game. He was sensational. Ticked all the boxes. Outstanding character from a great family. Very driven. Very committed. And his left foot kick was just superb, one of the best kicks I’d seen.’’
By the end of the season Henderson believed Hore was “almost a definite’’ to be drafted.
He finished second in Bendigo’s best and fairest, behind Tardrew, and there was talk of a rookie listing.
When it didn’t eventuate Hore headed for Melbourne, determined to improve his football and see where it took him.
Collingwood was happy to offer him a contract — “I didn’t necessarily have to try out for a spot on the list’’ — and, taking in the facilities at the club and the coaching staff, he was happy to accept.
Hore played nine games in 2016. Then he played like superbly in 2017, seizing the eye of AFL clubs. Collingwood was keen on its VFL player but told him he was “a victim of the list profile … said they had too many similar players, that they needed a tall and a small’’. Essendon — where he played one match in the VFL in 2015 — was interested too.
Overlooked, Hore resolved to “go again’’ with the Magpies.
“They say you’ve got to have two good years of VFL footy to get l looked at,’’ he said. “So fingers crossed.’’
Toes crossed too for the Leitchville lad with the lethal foot.
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