Sam Powell-Pepper on mentoring youth away from the footy field, becoming more of a leader on it and how his change of position came about after tough 2019
Playing footy isn’t the only thing that Sam Powell-Pepper has been deprived of because of the coronavirus pandemic after he started to get more involved mentoring youth.
Port Adelaide
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All across Australia there are footballers frustrated.
Frustrated that their season, in the case of the AFL players, got put on ice as soon as it began.
Or in the case of all below the elite level, frustrated that they haven’t even gotten a chance to run out on the field even for trial games.
Not playing footy has Sam Powell-Pepper frustrated, obviously that is his passion and livelihood.
But the coronavirus pandemic, and the shutdown of the AFL season, has deprived him of something else.
“I’ve just started to get involved with Ladder (the official charity of the AFL Player’s Association) and a bit of mentoring this year,” Powell-Pepper told The Advertiser from Perth where he will wait out the pandemic with family.
“I went down there and did a little bit so it sucks that this bloody virus has come around because I was just starting to get into that a bit more.”
Ladder, established by the AFLPA and AFL Foundation, involves players mentoring young people at risk or experiencing homelessness to get their lives back on track and create better futures for themselves.
Although just 22-years-old, Powell-Pepper has plenty of lessons to teach.
In just his second year as a professional the West Australian found out the hard way just how quickly a world can turn upside down.
After finishing third in the 2017 Rising Star award in his debut year Powell-Pepper was first banned for three AFL games and one by the club in April-May 2018 after the AFL integrity unit found him guilty of making “inappropriate contact” to a then 20-year-old university student on the dance floor of a Hindley St nightclub.
He then had AFL integrity unit asking questions again after accidentally posting an inappropriate image on social media.
“I’ve learnt quite a bit over the years and had to mature quite a bit,” Powell-Pepper said.
“So I feel like I’m very mature at the moment.”
Powell-Pepper continues to live with reigning club best and fairest and former captain Travis Boak in Adelaide, although he is back with family in Perth after making a quick dash west to beat border closures after the AFL season was put on ice because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Watching the way Boak conducts himself as a leader has Powell-Pepper trying to be more of one in his fourth year at Alberton.
“Yeah definitely, I pretty much try and do my part, try and teach the young boys about professionalism and that,” he said.
“I’m in my fourth year now so starting to try and become a bit more of a leader.
“I’ve learnt a lot from Boaky so I just try and relay that message.”
Powell-Pepper was hugely impressive on the field for Port Adelaide in his first two seasons despite the attention stealer that was the off-season incidents.
After his stellar debut season the powerful big-bodied midfielder backed it up and more when on the field in his second year at Alberton – earning comparisons to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin.
But just a year later Powell-Pepper was full of questions after a season he was nowhere satisfied with.
“2019 was not what I wanted it to be,” he said.
“But I just tried to play whatever position I was put in and give my everything in every game.”
Port’s midfield was branded “slow”, “one-paced” and criticised for poor kicking efficiency.
Powell-Pepper bore a considerable brunt of this, and after getting dropped three times in the second half of the season – although he was an 11th hour replacement on two occasions – he was unsure about where he sat in the team.
This prompted a chat, which in albeit early days prompted what looks like a successful positional change.
“It was at the start of the year, I just had a chat with the coaches. I wanted a bit of clarity around where I would play this year,” he said.
“They said pretty much a bit more forward and then probably hit the midfield for about five minutes each quarter so I was pretty happy with that as long as I had some clarity around where I was playing.
“So there was a little bit of uncertainty where I was playing but there’s a lot more clarity now and I was really looking forward to this season, everyone was well connected I was clear in my mind as to what I wanted to do.”
It isn’t just the clarity in his role in the team that had a spring in Powell-Pepper’s step in 2020.
Like nearly all Port Adelaide players, Powell-Pepper came away from the club’s pre-season camp at Maroochydore – where Power players told deeply personal stories in front of the entire squad and coaches – with an increased sense of connection.
The work of Hugh van Cuylenburg and the Resilience Project, who Port Adelaide and eight other AFL teams take part in, has also been big for Powell-Pepper.
“It is just the connection with the boys, we have also done a lot of work with Hugh who runs the Resilience Project he is the main man for that,” he said.
“I think he has been a very big help over the year, we went to Maroochydore and did a lot of bonding and team connection up there I just feel like it’s a really tough knit team at the moment.
“It was just about being brave enough to be vulnerable to the boys, just having that trust factor and knowing that everyone has their own little stories and challenges.
“It’s very important when you go through these ups and downs you stick together as a group and I think us boys are as tighter than we have ever been.”
Originally published as Sam Powell-Pepper on mentoring youth away from the footy field, becoming more of a leader on it and how his change of position came about after tough 2019