Sam Naismith was set to quit Aussie rules until he got a phone call from Sydney coach Paul Roos

SAM Naismithhad only played a couple of seasons in the scrubby Tamworth league and was about to ditch the Sherrin for a return to rugby union ... then he got a phone call from Paul Roos.

Sam Naismith. Picture: Daniel Wilkins

SAM Naismith was about to hop on a bus bound for a pub when his football ride began.

Delaying a drinking session at the Wicklow Hotel in Armidale, NSW, was premiership coach Paul Roos, twho called with an invitation to join Sydney’s talent academy.

Naismith didn’t believe it was him. How could he?

The Gunnedah kid had played only a couple of seasons in the scrubby Tamworth league and was about to ditch the Sherrin for a return to rugby union.

“I thought someone was taking the mickey out of me, trying to play a prank,” Naismith recalled.

“It was a bit surreal — you don’t often get Paul Roos calling you.”

A chance airport meeting between Roos and Swans academy boss Chris Smith and one of Naismith’s local coaches triggered Sydney’s interest in the 205cm ruckman who is fast becoming a shrewd find.

Naismith accepted Roos’ invitation and continued his journey to the pub with good reason to clink glasses — after explaining to his mates who Roos was.

A week later Naismith was on a flight to Sydney, where he moved in with a Glenhaven host family organised by Roos and spent the 2012 season at North Shore.

On Saturday night he will combat Adelaide’s All-Australian ruckman Sam Jacobs in the centre square at the SCG, a preliminary final berth on the line.

Sam Naismith wins the ruck contest over Port Adelaide’s Jackson Trengove. Picture: Getty Images

It will be only his 11th AFL game, but it has been a super rise from the outskirts of a tiny town that was put on the map by a supermodel — Miranda Kerr was born there.

Now 24, Naismith played soccer, cricket, tennis and both rugby codes, basically everything except Aussie Rules, in a household mad for Parramatta Eels.

The 2008 Grand Final pricked Naismith’s interest in the code and, when he signed up with Gunnedah’s 2009 team with a mate, it was more social than serious.

There were no rigorous pre-seasons and Naismith has no doubt that was a factor in the injury curse that shadowed his first three AFL seasons.

They started calling me Crayfish around the club and then the coaches started calling me Crayfish and now everybody does.

- Sam Naismith

In 2013 he broke his thumb boxing Jude Bolton, then required surgery for a knee caused by overtraining as he recovered.

The next season was hindered by glandular fever, which sabotaged Naismith’s 2015 summer.

A rushed recovery meant he played all three pre-season games, and then broke down with osteitis pubis.

Naismith had a broken hand requiring surgery to start this season, but since July has emerged as a clever tap ruckman with a dash of aggression — evidenced by a $1000 fine for spear-tackling Richmond’s Bachar Houli in Round 23.

And after studying vision of Naismith in action during the past month, Jacobs knows what he’s in for tonight.

“He’s a real pure jumper of the ball and he’s had a really good year,” Jacobs said.

But the man behind Naismith’s rise has been Sydney’s ruck coach of the past 17 years, Steven Taubert.

Known in footy circles as “the ruck whisperer”, former Richmond, Essendon and Sydney player Taubert has fast-tracked big men including Jason Ball, Greg Stafford, Darren Jolly and Shane Mumford.

Naismith flies for a contested mark. Picture: Gregg Porteous

He honed Kurt Tippett’s work in the middle and helped convert Canadian rugby player Mike Pyke from footy novice to premiership hero.

“I owe Taubo a lot,” Naismith said.

“It’s frustrating being injured when you come into the club and there’s not much you can do. But you can always work on your ruck craft and your touch. He’s a wealth of knowledge, knows what he’s talking about and he doesn’t beat around the bush, which is what I like.”

Naismith is Taubert and the Swans’ academy latest success story and expert David King believes he is providing Sydney’s decorated midfield with silver service not available before this season.

“They’ve never actually roved from an advantageous position,” King said.

“They’ve always had to fight for possessions, in close, in that in tight circle, one to two metres around the ruckman in the drop zone.”

And Champion Data franks it. The Swans win clearances 48 per cent of the time Naismith is involved — the highest percentage of any player on the list.

Suddenly, Sam is the man, although you won’t hear that expression inside the Swans’ four walls.

“I don’t actually go by Sam,” Naismith said. “It’s ‘Crayfish’.”

What?

“Yep, it’s stuck — no one calls me Sam,” he said. “I was living with Shane Biggs and Dean Towers and we were walking to a reserves game and they were making up words that rhymed with my name.

“Someone said ‘crayfish’ and everyone p-----d themselves laughing. They thought it was the funniest thing on earth.

“They started calling me Crayfish around the club, and then the coaches started calling me Crayfish, and now everybody does.”

Even Naismith himself has come on board — the budding cameraman’s amateur business is called Craytography.

If not for that call from Roos as ‘Crayfish’ set out to quench a thirst?

“I’d probably still be back home,” he said.

“Probably sitting in a pub somewhere.”