Richmond midfielder Kane Lambert firing for Tigers after thinking his AFL dream had passed him by

HE was a TAC Cup and VFL star for years but nobody wanted to know about Kane Lambert. Then, finally, came an unexpected lucky break.

Kane Lambert is making the most of his AFL opportunity.

KANE Lambert was at home alone, preparing for another work day as manager of a gym when his phone rang.

He missed the call, but noticed it was a strange number that had pinged through to voicemail.

Lambert was intrigued, so he punched in “101” to retrieve the message and was surprised to hear the voice of Richmond list manager Blair Hartley. Until then, they had never spoken.

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“I called him back and he said, ‘We’re going to take you with one of our first three picks in the rookie draft, we’ll give you a call afterwards’,” Lambert recalled last week.

It was 10 minutes before the 2014 rookie draft and the first time he had heard from anyone at Richmond.

Within hours he was on a plane to Townsville to join the Tigers on a pre-season training camp, his dream of playing AFL suddenly alive.

Kane Lambert celebrates a goal for Richmond this year. Picture: Getty.

Kane Lambert led Williamstown’s fightback in the 2014 VFL second semi-final.

Lambert had endured years of frustration, crushed hopes and heartbreak.

Overlooked as a teenager in the 2009 national draft, his big break did not come until a 2014 VFL preliminary final for Williamstown, when he had 32 disposals, 17 clearances, 15 inside-50s and kicked four goals in a performance Champion Data rated as worth 169 SuperCoach points.

Williamstown coach Andrew Collins labelled it “arguably the best individual state league game I’ve ever seen in the prelim”.

“We were fielding interest for other players all year yet I knew what a special talent I had with Kane,” Collins said.

“We had to manage him through the year with rehabilitation from an injury (hip surgery) but I finally took off the leash in the finals.”

Until then, two-time North Melbourne premiership coach Denis Pagan thought he had lost the plot.

Pagan coached Lambert at TAC Cup club Northern Knights in 2009 and could not understand why his best-and-fairest winner was on the nose with AFL recruiters.

“Josh Caddy and Dylan Grimes also played in that team ... but nobody wanted to know about Kane Lambert. It was bizarre,” Pagan said.

“I spoke to North Melbourne recruiting people. I sent videos that said he’s a right-footed Anthony Stevens and he’s going to get better. I spoke to St Kilda where a dear friend of mine is and I even spoke to someone at Carlton.

“You’ve got no idea how many times I rang and how many videos I sent to recruiters. You don’t often believe so strongly in somebody, but I did.

“You start to think, ‘Maybe I’m a poor judge’. I was starting to doubt myself when he wasn’t getting a look in.”

After being overlooked, Lambert was crushed and fell out of love with the game. He took a break to decide whether he wanted to play footy again.

Kane Lambert is making the most of his AFL opportunity. Picture: Kylie Else

Kane Lambert plays a key role in Richmond’s high-pressure style. Picture: Sarah Reed

Lambert trained away from the track and added 10kg to his frame in the gym, but when he started stacking paint cans in a Preston factory for a living he realised he still wanted to become an AFL footballer.

“I did a lot of soul-searching there. It wasn’t tough work but it was mentally tough,” Lambert said.

“The biggest thing I missed was being part of a club.”

Lambert joined the Northern Bullants — now the Northern Blues — in 2011 and two years later won the club best-and-fairest, was picked in the VFL’s team of the year, finished runner up in the JJ Liston Trophy and won the Fothergill-Round Medal as the VFL’s Rising Star.

“We were hopeful that Carlton would look at him,” Blues general manager Garry O’Sullivan said.

“It would have been great for Kane, great for our club, great for the alignment.

“All the dots were just there to be lined up but in their wisdom they didn’t and that didn’t go down too well with Kane, and then over he went to Williamstown.”

Shoulder and back injuries hampered Lambert’s first year at Richmond in 2015, but this year has played 20 of a possible 21 matches and last Wednesday he signed a two-year contract extension.

He is on track to play his 50th game in Richmond’s first final in a fortnight. But that is far from the front of his mind.

“I’m not here to reach personal milestones, I’m just here to play my role and do everything I can for my teammates,” Lambert said.

Kane Lambert tries to break clear of an opponent while playing for Northern Knights in the TAC Cup in 2009.

Kane Lambert gets a kick away for Northern Blues in the VFL in 2013.

Lambert’s junior coach since Auskick George Wakim says the Richmond lifeline was reward for hard work and persistence, two qualities Lambert has never lacked.

“Kane would never miss a training session, never miss a game,” Wakim said.

“He wanted to work, he’d go and do that extra running after training even as a 15-year-old when most kids can’t wait to go home and get on the PlayStation.

“He’s not (Patrick) Dangerfield. He’s not silk and he’s not tall. But I think his X-factor is he never gives up and the fact he got knocked back so many times but eventually got drafted is a real reflection of that.”

Pagan — now working in real estate — still talks to some of those same recruiters who continually ignored his pleas to draft the Richmond onballer.

Not that the 344-game coach brings up Lambert’s name in discussion.

As he says: “I don’t need to talk about it. I was right.”

FIND OUT HOW IMPORTANT KANE LAMBERT IS TO RICHMOND’S FINALS CHANCES IN THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE DRILL. LISTEN BELOW: