Geelong’s Sam Menegola is desperate to get another shot at finals football
SAM Menegola didn’t think life could get any better after Geelong’s amazing finals win over Hawthorn last year. Then he came crashing back to earth, hard.
Geelong
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SAM Menegola has counted down the 349 days between last September’s preliminary final and Friday’s first bounce.
He doesn’t mind what you call it — redemption, a chance to atone or a test that must be passed this time.
At 24, Menegola believed he had achieved football utopia in Geelong’s qualifying final victory against Hawthorn last year.
After three AFL clubs, 100 tiny setbacks and detours and a list of serious injuries, his 23-possession game was a footballer’s dream.
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Then came the preliminary final, when Sydney jumped Geelong early and then danced on its grave, winning by 39 points.
He was far from the Cats’ worst that night — many more experienced teammates were horrible — but his 17-disposal game burnt in his memory.
“It was a shocking feeling,” Menegola said. “Everyone was really flat and, as a player going through that if you didn’t get it done on the night, for guys like myself, there were quite a few things to go through.
“Your mind quickly adjusts to doing everything you can to get back to that spot. You want to test yourself to see if you have improved.
“Friday night is the first step to get back there.”
Menegola performed at only 52 per cent efficiency and had a touch of the fumbles against the Swans.
And yet he won’t offer the excuse that it was only his eighth game of senior football.
“Nah, I had a pretty bad night,” he said. “It was a real learning curve for me. The intensity went up again and Sydney were just such an elite outfit.
“As a unit we weren’t clean enough, we didn’t get our hands to the ball first, we didn’t wrap Sydney up when they got it.
“I learnt a lot about finals footy that night and hopefully it’s made me a better footballer.
“But until I get out there on Friday night I don’t know. I am looking forward to testing myself.
“It was a feeling I have kept going back to all through the year. I think if you can use those moments the right way they can be really powerful.
“If you just let them sit there and rot away at you then that’s when it can be detrimental. I have learnt a lot from that game.”
So has Geelong, which has spent the season attempting to be more efficient in attack after it butchered an advantage of 32 extra inside-50s than the Swans that night.
The hard-running Menegola, who can cover as much as 15km a game in his new role at half-forward, has played as big a part as anyone.
He has rounded out a more dynamic forward line that has Tom Hawkins roaming further upfield and Harry Taylor as a regular fixture.
Menegola has kicked 14.18, a result of excellent overhead marking and a knack for finding space. His 23 touches, 10 tackles and seven inside-50s against Richmond in Round 21 were a recent reminder.
“At the start of the year I wanted to be more consistent, improve what my best footy looks like and produce it more often,’’ Menegola said.
“Probably a few weeks before the bye I started going to half-forward, playing there predominantly and I think it’s been really good for me.
“I have enjoyed it. (Marking) is something I had in juniors and colts and I have used it more in that position.
“Scotty’s (coach Chris Scott) analysis from last year was that we weren’t a finished product. Particularly spending more time in the forward half, you can feel it is different in terms of the kind of looks we get and what we are generating.”
Menegola’s journey is well known. The son of a Perth media executive, he played at East Fremantle in the WAFL before being drafted as a rookie by Hawthorn. After one year he asked to be delisted and Fremantle snapped him up, but he was delisted again after three years and without a senior game.
He went back to the WAFL in 2015, this time with Subiaco, before Geelong recruiter Stephen Wells snared him at pick 66 in the 2015 national draft.
When the Herald Sun sat down with Menegola last year he spoke of losing his love for the game at times, as his family wondered why he kept torturing himself.
“Yeah, I had definitely fallen out of love with footy, but then at Subi I started loving footy and that has definitely continued on at Geelong,” he said.
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“That has got a lot to do with the people you go to work with and the way the club runs. I am very lucky.
“I feel like, with injuries and some of the other stuff in the first half of my career, luck wasn’t on my side.
“I feel like I have been repaid in terms of luck tenfold in the last two or three years.
“I am surrounded by unbelievable role models as footballers and people and am part of a footy club which makes you love coming to training every day.”
At Hawthorn he was persuaded to delist himself with promises of contracts that quickly evaporated, but the Cats have now re-signed him for three more years.
Life is good in Geelong with partner Emma Itzstein, and Menegola works as much as he can with an insurance broking company in Melbourne, having learnt not to rely on a football career to achieve his life goals.
He loves the local coffee scene and rides his road bike as much as the club allows down the Great Ocean Rd or through the Otways.
On Friday Menegola will present at the MCG a smarter, wiser, more rounded player than the 2016 version.
“I understand now what finals are and what they aren’t,” Menegola said.
“Hopefully that leaves you in a better spot to take them on again. But I won’t know until Friday night.”
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