Steele Sidebottom plays game 200 on Sunday and some of the people closest to him pay tribute
STEELE Sidebottom is one of the AFL’s unheralded superstars and, ahead of his 200th game for Collingwood, some of the people who know him best pay tribute.
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STEELE Sidebottom does everything with a smile on his face, even when doing the things he doesn’t especially want to do.
As he nears the end of his umpteenth interview leading into Sunday’s 200th game against Essendon at the MCG, he is still speaking effusively about the family he is proud to be a part of, the football club that helped him to become one of the AFL’s best, and the game that seems ingrained in his soul.
A left field question comes about whether he has become a little jaded by the attention on him this week, perhaps even a little angry, given he doesn’t particularly like talking about himself.
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He pauses, and laughs: “You probably never will (see me angry).”
Sidebottom and his smile are infectious. They go everywhere together, in the heat of battle, in the corridors and the gym at the Holden Centre, on the training track, his teammates say even in the last lap of a gruelling two-kilometre time-trial.
But beneath it lies a powerfully driven individual who has become an important leader around the club, one who is prepared to sacrifice his own game for the team (turning himself into an inside mid) and who loves nothing better than shining on the big stage.
So it seems entirely appropriate his milestone match comes before a packed MCG crowd, in a game that means so much to both sides.
He’s done his share to boost the crowd, with almost 50 family and friends coming down from the Goulburn Valley to see one of the region’s finest sons join elite company.
“We probably ended up with about 40 tickets,” he said. “Mum messaged me and said he wanted 22 (appropriate given his number) and one of my best mates wanted another 15. So there will be plenty there.”
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“The enclosure will be full, so we will see if we put a good show for them.”
This week had Sidebottom thinking about the people who have helped along the journey from a kid from Tallygaroopna, near Shepparton, who played for Congupna, to becoming a Collingwood great.
“There are so many people who have helped me,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun. “I had Luke Beveridge as our development coach and to be guided by Bevo was huge. Mick (Malthouse) was obviously coach then, but there’s been Bucks as well.
“The coaches pushed me in Pendles’ direction. You just want to latch on to guys who do all the right things.
“Growing up, all my brothers were great. One of them, Tyson, is someone I have looked up to for as long as I can remember. I wanted to grow up and be like him.
“Even today our mids coach Harvs (Robert Harvey), he knows the game better than most people, and he just backs me in and lets me play my game.”
He’s enjoying this year as much as any since Collingwood’s strong 2010 and 2011 seasons. Back in 2010, he almost pinched the Norm Smith Medal off his teammate Scott Pendlebury as a 19-year-old.
Now 27, and having not played on the finals stage since 2013, he is desperate to chase more success, and is keen to play on for as long as he can.
“You are always a bit jealous when watching on the couch on Grand Final day when you are not in it, and I want to help get us back there again sooner rather than later,” he said.
“Because I’ve been there and experienced it before, I think I actually want it more now. I want my teammates who haven’t experience it yet to feel what we did.”
Just imagine the smile then …
NICK MAXWELL
TWO things stand out for Nick Maxwell about the impact Sidebottom has made on Collingwood — and the game itself.
The first centres on how good he is at building relationships.
“For me, the number one thing about Steele is the growth in his leadership, to see what he does now and the demand he puts on other players,” Maxwell said. “That’s because of his relationships at the club. He builds relationships, and when he talks, people listen.”
“When he came into the club he was just a happy kid from the country and now he is the vice-captain and someone who is held in the highest regard.
“He has got the perfect mix of when to be a lad, and when to pull up and be a bit more serious. That’s not something he would have put any thought into. It’s just him. When you are genuine, people are drawn to you, and that’s the case with Steele.”
The other thing that Maxwell says stands Sidebottom apart from so many other gifted AFL stars is his capacity to do the hard stuff on the field.
“He kicked 10 goals in a (TAC Cup) grand final, but he came to Collingwood and did all the little one percenters and all the team stuff before he became a superstar,” he said. “When you look at the superstars, a lot of the time they are not renown for those things, but there is no doubt Steele is.”
“One of the moments that stands out for me was in (Round 2 game) against Melbourne (in 2010). He laid a tackle in our forward pocket, and then ran the whole length of the ground to put a spoil on (Ricky) Petterd.”
The spoil came only seconds before the final siren, with Collingwood holding on to win by a point.
Maxwell is convinced Sidebottom can “absolutely” be Collingwood’s next captain after Scott Pendlebury.
ADAM OXLEY
FOOTBALL has a great tradition of reprisals against club pranksters. Unless, of course, the prankster is Steele Sidebottom.
Do that at your own peril, according to his close mate Adam Oxley.
“He is pretty quiet on social media, but the only videos he would ever upload on Instagram were when his cousin was living with him,” Oxley said. “Steele would hear his cousin coming home and would go and hide in his room. Then when his cousin would walk in, he would scare the crap out of him by making a loud noise.
“I actually lived with him for nine months. I was thinking he would never get me. But he got me with it every second week and not once did I catch on. He almost gave me a heart attack.”
Those at Collingwood know not to throw back pranks on him, because Steele would take it to a new level in a payback that probably comes from having four older brothers.
“What you see is what you get with Steele,” Oxley said. “You can take Steele out of Shepparton, but you can’t take the Shepparton out of Steele.”
“He is a gifted sports all-rounder, but you mix that in with a bit of cheekiness.”
“He took me under his wing pretty early … we’re both ultra competitive. I have never met someone as competitive as Steele is.”
That extends well beyond the realms of football, and includes cricket, golf, and even tennis, with the latter being the only one that Oxley has an edge on him.
Oxley is convinced Sidebottom can reach 400 AFL games.
“To be perfectly honest with you, he might only be halfway through his career,” he said. “He is that durable. He’s only 27, and I am going to say (he can play) anywhere between 350 to 400 games, if he can keep his body in line.”
RYAN SIDEBOTTOM
STEELE’S cricketing brother, Ryan, will have his alarm set for 6.20am (England time) to watch Sunday’s match from half a world away.
Despite the ugly early hour, he wouldn’t miss it for quids.
“I will be able to jump on and watch it on the AFL Live app,” Ryan said. “I can’t wait.”
Ryan couldn’t be prouder of Steele, who is the youngest of the five Sidebottom siblings, saying his competitive edge and his ability to perform under pressure almost certainly comes from the intense, sometimes physical, matches played out in the family’s backyard at Tallygaroopna.
“Steele and I are only 18 months apart, so we spent a fair chunk of our lives together. We used to get asked if we were twins,” Ryan said.
“But it used to get a bit heated in the backyard. It was a case of you either win or you perish.
“You learnt quickly to hold your own or else you would get sick of losing.
“We had the old trampoline with the mat taken out. Steele was stirring me up one day and I remember kicking the footy at him when he wasn’t looking and it hit him on the head. He ended up with a blood nose. There was a fair bit of blood shed in the backyard.”
Ryan has seen his brother mature into one of the best players in the game.
“Touch wood, this can continue,” he said. “He does things the right way and keeps things simple in terms of his preparation for games and is diligent in recovery.
“We’re just so proud of what he has been able to achieve.”
SCOTT PENDLEBURY
LONG after Scott Pendlebury is retired, perhaps even long after some of his younger teammates have hung up the boots, Steele Sidebottom will still be playing footy up the bush, according to his captain.
Pendlebury can see Sidebottom playing grassroots footy into his 50s.
“He loves his footy and if his body allows it, he will still be playing into his 50s,” Pendlebury said on the Jock and Journo podcast.
“He would be right at home if AFL stopped right now. He’d go back and play local footy. He loves the banter, the jokes, the beer-after-the-game stuff, and probably the next day catching up for a beer in a pub, having a punt or something like that.
Pendlebury said Sidebottom’s “infectious” personality was a driving force throughout the tough past four seasons with Collingwood missing out on the eight.
“People talk about footy being a business, but to Steele, football is just what he loves doing,” he said. “He is just a kid playing out his dream on the MCG.
“He has been first class. He has definitely grown (into a leadership role). His footy IQ is strong and he can play multiple roles.”
NATHAN BUCKLEY
BUCKLEY has often wondered how good it would be to have three Steele Sidebottoms on his coaching magnet board.
“One on the forward line, one on the backline and one in the middle would be handy,” Buckley said. “The game has shifted and evolved in all shapes and forms, but he has been able to stand up and continue to improve his impact on the team’s ability to perform.
“He is a hard runner, and the game is a running game. He is a smart user, he knows where to position himself. He can use the ball on both sides of the body and he is resilient and durable. So he has the right mentality which leads him to being a good player in any conditions.
“I’ve made no secret of the fact, probably more internally, of my love for the bloke, (in) the way that he carries himself and the way he attacks his footy.”
The coach has shuffled the board again in the past season-and-a-bit by taking one of the best wingmen in the AFL and turning him into an inside mid. Sidebottom’s move into this role has been a massive success, and has allowed the Magpies to develop outside run from a host of younger players.
“His inside stuff has always been there, but it was just a matter of going to the next level,” Buckley said. “We loved him on the wing and we didn’t want to move him away from there. But (now) we have plenty of boys to take that position.”
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