‘Absolute warrior’: The compelling AFL draft case of Werribee premiership star Dom Brew
Dom Brew won almost everything in the VFL this year - so can he crown it with an AFL list spot at age 27? Good judges are adamant the ‘competitive beast’ should get his chance, writes PAUL AMY.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Dom Brew won almost everything there was to win in the VFL this year.
A premiership with Werribee, as acting captain.
The JJ Liston Trophy, with 31 votes.
The Coaches’ MVP.
The Bees’ best and fairest.
VFL team of the year selection, as skipper, to go with his captaincy of the state side that met the SANFL.
At age 27, can he crown it by winning a place on an AFL list? Some good judges think so.
VFL commentator and Hawthorn premiership player Campbell Brown praised him to the skies last month, declaring Brew “almost my favourite footballer of all-time’’ and naming him as one of his leading draft hopefuls from the VFL.
“Give the man a job and he will do it without questioning from the first bounce to the last bounce, irrespective of score, how he’s playing, what’s happening around him,’’ Brown told AFL Trade Radio.
“He’s just a competitive beast unlike anyone that I’ve ever seen, including Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell. He’s a competitive animal.’’
Now Brown’s Channel 7 colleague Nigel Carmody, long-time Werribee CEO Mark Penaluna and Coburg coach Jamie Cassidy-McNamara are talking up the left-footer, who has written to every AFL club asking them to draft him.
Carmody believes onballer Brew would “thrive’’ in the AFL.
“He’s got all the attributes … a leader, a hard-worker, wins contested footy, can cover the ground, can go and do a job.
“What he’s doing now to being a full-time AFL footballer, I think he’d just grow a leg. There’s probably not as much time on the clock for him, but there’s more than enough for him to come in and make a pretty big difference.’’
As a player with Casey and Collingwood and as a commentator, Carmody has been involved in the VFL for 25 years. He cannot recall a player having a more dominant season than Brew, who averaged 28.6 disposals, 18 contested possessions, 9.6 tackles, 10 clearances and 5.5 inside 50s from 22 matches.
Beyond the numbers was a passion for his club and team that he could not suppress after the Bees’ preliminary final win, choking back tears before the Channel 7 cameras.
“He’s a typical guy who has been reared on country football and has those sorts of values … hardworking and obsessed with trying to make others better,’’ Carmody notes.
Brew had 30 possessions and eight tackles in the grand final against Southport, giving the Norm Goss Medal for best-afield a shake. The Norm Goss was the only major award that eluded him this year.
As clubs sift through young prospects for the so-called “super draft’’, Penaluna says they would be wise to also think about the more mature Brew. He says he would be an asset for “a whole range of clubs’’.
“What he’s been able to present as a player in the past few years, he’s carried himself over two or three levels from where he was,’’ Penaluna says.
“He deserves a chance and hopefully he’s going to get it. He’s been in the building trade, getting up at 5.30 every morning and doing everything he has to do and then going home and cooking dinner and going again. Immediately he would improve himself by 10 per cent going into that (full-time) environment, and you know he’d impose the desire, the determination and the passion on the younger guys around him and who knows what the benefits of that might be.
“You know you’d get absolute 100 per cent commitment from him … he’d go out and be an absolute warrior who would give everything to his teammates and also do the things that happen seven days a week at a club that people don’t see. I know, out of his own kick, he takes some of our younger guys out for dinner and have a check-in and see how they’re going.’’
Cassidy-McNamara knows Brew less intimately than Penaluna, but is a fan. He says he would be a “fantastic cultural addition’’ to an AFL club, “driving standards for the younger players, and he’d be a huge part of the VFL program’’.
“I just think guys like him are worth their weight in gold,’’ Cassidy-McNamara says. “He’s gone about it ‘the hard way’, so if he gets to an AFL environment you know he’s going to be doing 120 per cent of whatever the prescribed work is.
“A club would need to have a list spot of course and I’d never presume to tell recruiters how to do their jobs, but from a coaching perspective he’d be so valuable. The passion that he would bring … I don’t think you could put a quantity or number on it.’’
For his part, Brew says he was slightly embarrassed by Brown’s boost.
But he’s yet to hear from an AFL club.
“Nothing,’’ he says. “Everyone seems to hear things except for me. I actually haven’t heard anything.
“I’d love it (being drafted) to happen. Would be bloody unreal. It’s what I moved down here for. It wouldn’t be ‘job well done’, it would be starting fresh for me. I’d give it everything. All I need is a toe in the door, mate. Just a toe. If I get a toe in the door, I’d bring extreme work ethic and professionalism. I’m driven – all I want to do is win – and I’m a good bloke.’’
More Coverage
Originally published as ‘Absolute warrior’: The compelling AFL draft case of Werribee premiership star Dom Brew
Late mail: Clarko’s big call at No.2, live trades looming
Alastair Clarkson has locked into his preferred selection with pick 2, while live trades are looming. Chris Cavanagh and Dan Batten have the whispers on pick swaps and who your club is targeting.
Private settlement ends two-year Hawks racism saga
After two days of mediation, a confidential resolution has been reached between Hawthorn and former players and their partners, MARK ROBINSON reports.