Sam Rowe shocked to become St Kilda’s latest phone-a-friend in the search for defensive cover
Sam Rowe will go from budget planning to the heat of an AFL backline after the Saints this week called him out of retirement. But he’s ready to do his bit, revealing St Kilda’s surprising SOS has got the competitive juices flowing again.
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Sam Rowe was sitting in an office compiling a budget for the next financial year when the phone rang.
It was Tuesday and St Kilda list manager James Gallagher was on the line.
“He asked me if I was fit, which I was quite curious as to why he was asking,” Rowe told the Herald Sun.
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Three days later, Rowe, 30, was at Moorabbin completing a medical and signing a contract to play at the Saints — the latest whirlwind chapter in a career of extraordinary comebacks.
Here is a man who has been delisted twice — by Sydney and Carlton — and now come back twice, while beating cancer in between.
“I don’t know what it is with me, I seem to hang on. I wasn’t trying to hang on really,” he said.
“I was more than accepting of my career ending, but it’s a funny industry, footy. It gives opportunity and it’s what you do with that opportunity.
“This has presented itself and it’s something I want to grab a hold of.”
New supplementary selection period rules meant Dylan Roberton’s latest heart scare could find a silver lining in Rowe.
He diverted his emails, phone calls and called his clients at insurance builder, Johns Lyng Group, and got his head around adding to his 99-game tally five months after being cut by the Blues.
“Once I got the call the competitiveness in me just got sparked right up again,” Rowe said.
“I knew it was something I wanted to do because I got that feeling within me to have a crack again.
“I’m excited. I certainly wasn’t planning it or thinking about it, but now that I’ve been given this opportunity I’m looking forward to having some sort of impact at the Saints this year.”
Rowe had signed to play in the Eastern Football League with Doncaster East and described himself as being in “OK shape”.
“I’d want to give myself a couple of weeks of decent training and training with intensity to be sure I’m ready, but I’m confident in my body,” he said.
“The expectations are very minimal and I’m certainly not coming in to change the world. They’ve had some unfortunate injuries, which is no good, but I’m there to try and fill some holes where I can.
“I’ll give my best effort to try and help the team.”
St Kilda’s defensive stocks have been shredded, with Roberton’s year-long absence coming after news Jake Carlisle would be sidelined until the second half the season due to back surgery.
Young defender Oscar Clavarino is out for another six weeks with an ankle problem and Nathan Brown is suspended for Round 1.
Rowe’s arrival comes a day after the Saints plucked former Collingwood defender Jonathon Marsh from the Richmond VFL squad.
THE ROWE-D TO MOORABBIN
End of 2005: Recruited in the eighth round of the rookie draft by Sydney
End of 2007: Delisted by the Swans without playing an AFL game
2008: Signs for SANFL club Norwood
2011: Taken by Carlton with pick 44 in the national draft
2012: Diagnosed with testicular cancer and undergoes chemotherapy
2017: Suffers an torn ACL and has a full reconstruction
End of 2018: Delisted by Carlton and signs for Doncaster East in the Eastern Football League
March, 2019: Signed by St Kilda under new pre-season supplemental selection period rules.