Chasing The Dream: The Collingwood decision that blindsided Tom and Mick McGuane
Tom McGuane hoped to follow in his dad’s footsteps at the Pies, before one moment saw that dream come crashing down. Now, his old man reveals how it all played out — and what happens next.
Every AFL draft prospect has a different story to tell, with some facing more challenges during their draft years than others.
We asked columnist Mick McGuane to pen his thoughts, having lived it with his son Tom this year.
It hit like a tonne of bricks...
It was October 1 and Collingwood recruiting boss Shane O’Bree and Academy manager Lynden Dunn had just been to our family home to deliver the news that the Magpies would not be selecting Tom in this year’s national draft.
It blindsided Tom. It blindsided me.
Only two days earlier, Tom — a father-son prospect for Collingwood — had been invited to an Academy session at Olympic Park which was scheduled for 9am on October 2.
Rival clubs hadn’t come knocking on our door earlier in the year, with many thinking that Tom was most likely Collingwood-bound.
I’ve been around footy long enough to know that different people have different perspectives on players, so I accepted my old club’s decision as hard as it was to hear.
But my son was inconsolable for hours after receiving the news.
Since the age of 14 when he really knuckled down, he had done so much work and sacrificed so much in pursuit of his dream to play in the AFL.
A love for the black and white stripes was clearly in his veins and he showed it when he attended Collingwood games live or watched them on television at home.
I let Tom take some time to breathe and process the news after O’Bree and Dunn left.
Then I decided I had to give him some tough love.
He didn’t say it, but I knew that he was probably asking himself ‘What is the point of going into Collingwood tomorrow morning.”
I said, “Mate, there’s an old saying that age wrinkles the body, quitting wrinkles the heart”.
I added, “Go in there tomorrow, smile, pull your shoulders back like you normally do and show resilience and strength because the only person you have to face in the morning is yourself”.
It is very hard in life to be told by someone you are not part of their plans.
But Tom – who had only recently got his driver’s licence – drove himself to Collingwood the next morning and fronted up.
He very quickly moved on and fixed his focus on his dream of being drafted once again – wherever it may be.
MOVING ON
There’s another old saying that goes: ‘In sport, a winner is just a loser who tried one more time’.
If you understand that, you can cope with a few kicks in the guts.
Three days after fronting up to Collingwood, Tom fronted up again.
This time it was at the Victorian State Draft Combine, where he clocked a time of 2.938 seconds in the 20m sprint test and ran the 2km time trial in 6 min 20sec – in much more difficult conditions than those which were faced by national draft combine attendees two days earlier.
Myself and Tom’s mother, Kellie, went along to watch and were filled with pride.
Tom was dog-hungry to prove his athletic capabilities in front of recruiters from across the competition — and has continued to work on those traits ever since.
He has got himself a personal fitness coach and done significant work around strength and conditioning, speed, endurance and recovery.
Collingwood is just one of 18 clubs in the competition and there is a 19th club on the way.
If there was a 20th AFL club on the moon, I know Tom would make himself available to them, too.
I’ve said to him, “If you believe in yourself and you want to achieve what you set out to master, don’t let anyone or any club stand in your way”.
He is certainly living that mindset.
PRESSURE ON PROSPECTS
You need to put a level of pressure on oneself to drive you to achieve your dreams.
But for some AFL draft prospects, it can be all-consuming.
It is a busy and challenging year.
There would be days where Tom would have to be at his school Academy at 7am and wouldn’t get home from football training until after 9pm that night.
He was involved in five different programs — the Collingwood father-son Academy, Western Jets, Vic Metro, Collingwood VFL and local football at Keilor.
That is not uncommon for many draft prospects, but it is a lot of different voices to listen to, roles to carry out and structures to align yourself too.
And this is all at the same time that most of these draft prospects are trying to navigate Year 12 studies.
Along with the internal pressure that players can put on themselves, there are also external pressures.
It is a different world to what I experienced growing up, with the proliferation of social media and the scrutiny that can come from that.
I’ve told Tom that if those social media accounts become a distraction or if he can’t handle the scrutiny from them, just shut them down.
As parents, Kellie and I have worked hard to try and make sure that Tom gets to enjoy his childhood, which helps create humble and grounded young adults who will get to appreciate their lives.
If I’d seen a distinct change in his personality this year, I’d be concerned that he was being consumed by his AFL dream.
I haven’t seen that — which I’m proud of — but some other draft prospects might not be so lucky.
Footy is a great sport that has so many necessary life characteristics and behaviours attached to it.
I’ve always told him that coachable kids become employable adults and character is revealed when pressure is applied.
He has taken all of this on board.
RAISE THE AGE?
I remember Western Bulldogs premiership player Liam Picken putting this on the agenda in 2019.
“The AFL draft age is way too young. Should be at least 19,” Picken posted on social media.
“The benefits of raising the age far outweigh the short term pain.”
Having had the experiences we have this year, I can now see both sides to the argument.
Many young footballers are going through the stress of Year 12 and the exams that come with it, while juggling their football commitments.
Some also need more time to develop – physically and mentally – before being fully ready to make the leap.
For every Murphy Reid-type who is drafted and ready to impact at AFL level right away, there are stories of many others who aren’t quite ready even if they are drafted.
But what would it look like if players were made to wait another year?
Could the junior pathways be extended to under-19s or would players be expected to go into a VFL program to try and hone their craft against men, while continuing their education or going into work?
The biggest problem that I see for the AFL is that raising the age would give other sports an opportunity to poach some of football’s best athletes.
So it is a tricky debate and both sides could be argued strongly.
Regardless, what I do know is that the AFL needs to properly invest in the talent pathways to nurture and develop the young talent we have got coming through.
Cuts to the Coates Talent League program over recent years are not the answer when we have a 19th Tasmanian team on the way.
If the AFL are serious about the future of our great game, its financial commitment to these pathways must increase.
WHAT’S NEXT?
A lot of people continue to ask me, ‘How’s Tom’s football going?’
Firstly, I’m very respectful and humbled by their interest.
But in a strange way it doesn’t bother me — or trigger me — when they do ask, because I understand the football landscape.
I know Tom’s a talented young player and the harder the training is, the harder he wants to work.
That’s not a bad prerequisite to have — a young boy who has got a burning ambition to get to where he wants to go.
As the national and rookie drafts approach next week, the situation does feel a little different to how I envisaged it might look this time six months ago, when Tom was a pre-eminent midfielder in the Coates Talent League with the Jets.
Since then, he’s been used in a range of different roles including on a wing and across half-forward.
I understand he is not ready to play midfield minutes against bigger bodies at AFL level.
But I know he is an onballer deep down.
When I gave him a senior debut for Keilor in the Essendon and District Football League as a 16-year-old in the middle of last year, I didn’t hide him.
He collected 33 disposals and kicked three goals playing alongside three players who are no strangers to the AFL environment in Nick O’Kearney, Josh Honey and Corey Ellis.
Other clubs have spoken to Tom since the Collingwood decision, so there is some hope ahead of next week — with no guarantees attached.
There are hundreds of players who nominate for the draft each year who aren’t picked.
If Tom is one of them this year, we would have to recalibrate and work out the next course of action.
But I’ve got no doubt that Tom will stay in the boat and keep rowing in search of his long-held dream.
You just have to know who you are, be decisive in what you do, be fearless in pursuit of your dreams and be determined to reach the finish line.
My advice to him is pretty simple: It’s not about proving people wrong, it’s more about proving yourself right.
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Originally published as Chasing The Dream: The Collingwood decision that blindsided Tom and Mick McGuane
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