Geelong’s 2019 first-round draft pick Cooper Stephens eyes AFL debut after season of education
From watching vision with Patrick Dangerfield to working with Harry Taylor after training, Cooper Stephens has wasted little time as he pushes for a Round 1 debut.
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From the outside it appeared that Cooper Stephens’ first year in the AFL system was destroyed by COVID-19 which stopped him from playing state league footy and pushing his case for a debut.
But Geelong’s first-round draft pick from 2019 instead saw the positives it created by having access to 24/7 coaching in the Queensland hub.
“We only got 11 or 12 (practice) games in for the whole year but at the same time in the hub we were really lucky to be living with the older boys and the coaches,” Stephens said.
“Joel (Selwood) and Harry Taylor were awesome for us younger boys, he (Taylor) spent a lot of time after training talking to us about things he’d seen throughout the session that we could work on so I spent a lot of time with him just on my kicking.
“And I watched a lot of my scratch match vision with Joel and worked really closely with Nigel Lappin, Shane O’Bree and Shaun Grigg.
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“Even after dinner you could just grab one of the older guys like Joel or Patty (Dangerfield) or Harry and go upstairs and watch some vision which you definitely wouldn’t be able to do throughout the year (at home).
“So our knowledge and development off-field went through the roof compared to a normal year.
“Even the weeks we couldn’t get scratch matches we were able to play AFLX games just to keep our fitness up and be ready for a call-up which a few boys got.”
Drafted with Pick 16 in 2019 after coming off a badly broken leg, the midfielder was an emergency for the Cats five times this year but didn’t crack the senior side.
“I was close for a period of time there and the message has been the same - keep things simple and implement the fundamentals of our gameplan,” he said.
“It was obviously a difficult year with the team being at such a high standard so I’m trying to reach that standard myself and break in, hopefully in the midfield or down back if a spot opens up.”
Despite not playing a senior game, Stephens said he felt the disappointment of the grand final loss to Richmond like the rest of the squad.
“We were all in it together and we mentioned that multiple times throughout the year,” he said.
“All the boys were devastated and everyone felt a part of that, so it’s another driving force for this year.
“He (Brad Scott) hasn’t mentioned it (in pre-season yet), that was last season and the team will be different next year, it’s more an internal force than external, I think a lot of the older boys will be thinking enough of it as it is without having to speak about it.”
The Cats’ young players had their last training session for the year on Friday before their Christmas break and Stephens said he was fit and injury free.
“I’m feeling really good, I haven’t had any niggles over the break which is nice,” he said.
“My leg hasn’t given me any grief since before the draft so that’s well and truly in the past.
“I’ll spend Christmas in Geelong with friends and family and we’ll be back into it before we know it.
“I think I’ll have the day off on Christmas, we work too hard every other day so I’ll definitely be having that one off.”
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He has barely played a game in two years but Geelong draft bolter Max Holmes insists he’ll hit the ground running when he reports for pre-season training on Monday.
The Cats pulled off one of the more intriguing selections of this year’s draft, trading away a future first round pick to land the hidden away son of a former two-time Olympian and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
Cats recruiting guru Stephen Wells clearly rates the athletic youngster, and the high price of his selection was not lost on the 18-year-old Melbourne Grammar graduate.
“Hopefully I can live up to that,” Holmes said.
“I didn’t know the trade was going to happen and I kind of assumed I’d be going before Geelong’s first pick.
“I hadn’t spoken to Geelong in the lead up to the draft, only a few months ago and that was it, so this was awesome and a big shock.”
Geelong nabbed Holmes off a very small sample size, with Holmes playing just a handful of games the past few seasons.
“Last year in my first game of APS football I broke my arm, which was really unfortunate as I was pumped for a big season,” he said.
“So I only got in three games last year, two with school and one with the Sandy Dragons, and then this year with COVID meant my last full season was Year 10 at Melbourne Grammar.”
Despite the lack of game time, the 189cm midfielder believed he still possessed the necessary touch as he starts his AFL career.
“I was a bit nervous going into the draft this year just because of the lack of football, but I know I can handle it and I guess Geelong know I can handle it,” he said.
“I’ve been training hard throughout the whole year.
“During the year I was training as if I was going to be playing as I wanted to keep in top form.
“I was ready for any game to start so right now I’m feeling good and hopefully I can show that good touch at training and not embarrass myself.”
Holmes is the son of former athlete Lee Naylor, who represented Australia at two Olympics in 1996 and 2000.
She was 400m runner and her son followed in her path, representing Australia in the 400m hurdles at a national level.
He was the Victorian under-18 schoolboy champion in that event before deciding to focus on football.
“I’ve always done athletics with footy, so footy in winter and athletics in summer,” he said.
“I only stopped doing athletics 12 months ago as I made a decision to concentrate on footy.
“Before that there were opportunities for me to run for Australia and so I took those opportunities.
“The year before in the pre-season I kind of put footy to the side so I could really go for those goals, which I achieved when I ran for Australia last year.
“But I’m happy with what I’ve done in athletics and I’m really happy to get into footy.”
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