Carlton co-captain Sam Docherty on how he’s endured the toll of the last decade on his way to long-awaited 100th game
The road to 100 games has been harder than most for Sam Docherty. The Blues co-captain has endured plenty of hardship during his football journey, but his belief never wavered. He tells how he’s overcome his heartbreaks.
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The weekend marks a milestone that Sam Docherty should have been ticked off 805 days ago.
It has taken the Carlton co-captain nine years – a virtual lifetime in football parlance – to reach his 100th game milestone.
Fittingly it will be played at the Gabba, the Queensland ground at which he began his AFL life with the Brisbane Lions at the end of 2011.
Docherty originally thought he would play his 100th game in Round 8, 2018. Instead, he had knee surgery and missed that entire season.
But his belief and persistence to push through two heartbreaking ACL injuries to run out on Saturday is hardwired in his bones.
“My family is very hardworking. It’s a bit of a family trait,” he said.
“We’re not from the riches of life, and we’ve had to work pretty hard for everything that we’ve done, and my parents gave up a whole lot for my brother and I to follow our dreams, so I feel like that’s part of the hardworking element of that.
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“My mum will laugh that I’m saying this, but she’s always said ‘everything happens for a reason’, so it’s been drilled through to me my whole life.”
Docherty admits there have been moments in which his resolve has been tested.
He had two ACL reconstructions in recent years, but the biggest hit was losing his dad, Eddie, to a heart attack in late 2013 when Docherty was on the other side of the world on an Arizona training camp in his first few months as a Blue.
“There’s been times where I’ve questioned why I’ve exactly had to be the person going through it all,” he said.
“But I think that’s what built more of a resilience in what I do, and what I believe in … why I do what I do and why you wake up every morning and do the extras.”
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His father was a passionate Carlton supporter.
Tragically, he never got to see his son play in the navy blue.
Docherty’s first game with Carlton came a few months after Eddie’s passing.
But Docherty, who has since claimed a club best and fairest and All-Australian selection, said he always carried a part of his dad with him when he played.
“He’s part of why I do what I do and why I’ve been able to get through a bit of stuff is to have that extra bit of significance,” he said.
Docherty’s bumpy journey to his 100th AFL game began on Phillip Island when his family – Eddie, mum Annabel and brother Josh – moved closer to the football club from Surf Beach when the Carlton defender was 10.
“I don’t get back there as much as I should … it was a great place to grow up,” he said, admitting he was “third in line” behind the likes of the Hemsworth brothers and champion surfer Nikki van Dijk when it came to the Island’s famed exports.
Docherty married wife and childhood sweetheart Natalie – who he hopes will soon join the team’s hub – on January 25 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in a clear window between the horrific summer bushfires and the coronavirus to come.
“We viewed 2020 as our year – from a football point of view, from a life point of view,” he said.
“And it still has been a great year. If you’re talking about positives, we were able to get married, I’m back playing footy and injury-free which is great, and this weekend tick off 100 games which is a significant milestone at the best of times and with what I’ve had to go through it’s another thing.
“It’s just been a challenge and something we’ve had to go through all together as a whole footy industry. I feel like we’re coping pretty well … but it definitely hasn’t been easy.”
Despite last week’s heartbreaking after-siren loss to Port Adelaide and as his 100th game milestone finally arrives, Docherty’s belief is not only in himself but also what is being cultivated on the Gold Coast.
“We’re starting to show that more consistently throughout games and other people are starting to see more consistently what our brand is and what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“By the sounds of it, everyone’s liking it as much as we’ve liked it for a little while. The challenge is, you’ve just got to keep doing it.”
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