From the archive: Why drafting Marcus Bontempelli has proved to be a stroke of genius from the Western Bulldogs
He averaged just seven kicks for Vic Metro in his 2013 draft year, but the Western Bulldogs did their due diligence on Marcus Bontempelli, snaring him at pick No.4. The rest, as they say, is history. FROM THE ARCHIVE
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He was the No.1 player in Herald Sun Chief Football Writer Mark Robinson’s Top 50 of 2020, but what were the saying about were they saying about Western Bulldogs superstar Marcus Bontempelli in 2016?
READ SAM LANDSBERGER’S STORY BELOW
James Aish entered the 2013 draft with two senior SANFL premiership medallions and a pair of junior All-Australian jumpers hanging in the pool room.
He was the kid with rich footy bloodlines long touted a top-three selection.
Premiership coach Mark Williams rated another dual All-Australian, Matthew Scharenberg, the best underage player since Wayne Carey.
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Nathan Freeman offered explosive speed with a bubbly personality while cool full-forward Cameron McCarthy had won a game for Western Australia after the final siren.
Marcus Bontempelli was the lanky midfielder who averaged just seven kicks for Vic Metro. He thundered home in the TAC Cup and then leapfrogged the lot.
And when history re-ranks the real dux of 2013 it is likely to be an easy task.
Bontempelli, already looking a generational player, should take teammate Tom Boyd’s inside lane.
So with knocks on his speed and physicality — and a tendency to float out of games — how did the Western Bulldogs get this call so very right, taking The Bont at No. 4?
“From early in the year they were the ones that were really keen,” says Marcellin College footy coach Vaughan Cleary.
“We would’ve had 5-6 different phone calls from the Bulldogs.
“They rang the librarian, they rang the counsellor, they rang the deputy principal, they obviously rang myself and they rang his head of house leader.
“Basically they were making sure this kid was everything we said he was from a character perspective.”
Cleary knew better than most. He coached Bontempelli from age 15-17, his final three junior years.
In Year 10 Bontempelli lacked confidence. In Year 11 he returned after a growth spurt with a bigger fitness base and was in the best nearly every week.
By Year 12, Cleary suspected the AFL would soon be blessed with its newest superstar.
“One day he had 50 touches and kicked 10 goals,” Cleary said.
“And he’s probably dished off another 10. Some people think it’s a myth, but I can tell you we had the stats taken that day and they were accurate.
“I’ve been lucky enough to coach (David) Zaharakis, (Luke) Shuey, (Josh) Caddy, (Leigh) Montagna, (Jack) Newnes and quite a few boys.
“And Bonti’s got some tricks and capabilities I’ve seen in none of them.”
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Some clubs were hot on Bontempelli as a Year 11 kid. One said he was “all arms and legs” but there were clear signs he would grow into what we see today.
Boyd was widely viewed as a clear standout, but another Melbourne club swears they would have gone The Bont in a boilover.
“Yep, I had him No.1,” says the head recruiter.
Why?
“Time, creativeness, vision. His vision was amazing, he had the ability to open the game up (and) smarts is the hardest thing to find in players.”
But it was far from unanimous.
“Consistency the big issue,” read Bontempelli’s Champion Data draft profile.
“He struggled for Vic Metro, but dominated some TAC Cup games onball.”
The AFL’s official number cruncher ranked Bontempelli No. 18 and a recruiter from one club, which had just uncovered a gem for the ages, placed 16 players in front.
The way the draft cards fell in 2013, Bontempelli was never going to slip far.
Gold Coast seemed to settle to Kade Kolodashnij a long way out at No. 5 but it was reported that Collingwood — armed with picks six and 10 — was keen on the man being billed as the next Scott Pendlebury.
The Herald Sun’s phantom draft predicted: “If the Dogs can crack open this bloke’s potential he could wind up the best talent from the draft”.
Still, there was an element of surprise when his name was actually called.
In fact, hours later some privately believed the Dogs might have fluffed their highest draft pick in a decade.
“At the time they (Aish and Scharenberg) seemed safer picks,” another club said.
So how did the cousin of Nick Dal Santo make up so much ground late in the year?
Bontempelli’s final quarter for Vic Metro at Etihad Stadium set tongues wagging and lit the fuse to storm home for Northern Knights.
On an icy day in Ballarat and with the scoreboard settled, many players struggled for motivation.
Bontempelli kicked five goals from the midfield, one after winning the centre clearance, streaming forward and roving his own ball.
“We had recruiters say early in the year, ‘We don’t know whether he’ll get drafted’ which I found quite ridiculous,” Cleary says.
“Then he just started to creep up. It was, ‘He’s a third rounder’ then maybe late second-round then maybe early second-round and then maybe top-10.
“A lot of that movement ironically happened after the season finished.”
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Highlight tapes from 2013 are uncannily similar to what Bulldog fans are witnessing.
The amazing spatial awareness, the innate ability to free his arms and cleanly distribute by hand whenever tackled and a refusal to get flustered.
And then there is the unmatched character.
“I remember I said to a Bulldogs recruiter, ‘Dig all you like, this kid is second to none from a character perspective and he will not let you down’,” Cleary says.
The story goes that another club went to the source, hauling Bontempelli into the hot seat to be grilled by its famed senior coach.
They wanted dirt and were barking questions such as, ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?’
The Bont had nothing. So he nervously answered that he’d been rude to his sister before.
That didn’t cut it, so the club called in his mum from the carpark. There was nothing to find, and the family wasn’t thrilled with the treatment.
But it helps explain how in Round 11 Bontempelli, 20, became the youngest winning captain in VFL-AFL history.
In the same month, two of the three players drafted before The Bont — Boyd and Jack Billings — played VFL.
“You don’t get that greatness from not doing anything,” junior teammate Josh Dunkley says.
“He’s always last to leave the gym, last to leave physio treatment and he’s always doing extra stuff.”
In Dogs coach Luke Beveridge’s first summer he noted parallels between Bontempelli and former Carlton superstar Anthony Koutoufides.
After Bontempelli aced North Melbourne’s bullying test last week Beveridge declared the kid was “made of pretty special substances”.
AFL legend Leigh Matthews echoed Bevo’s Kouta call this year, anointing Bontempelli the game’s best young talent.
Recently Bontempelli hit No. 5 in the AFL player ratings that clubs fawn over and he sits fourth in the coach’s award, behind Dustin Martin (age 25), Rory Sloane (26) and Patrick Dangerfield (26).
Champion Data stats show Bontempelli and hot Brownlow favourite Dangerfield are the only two players averaging more than 24 disposals and a goal per game.
And Bontempelli doesn’t need 30 disposals to destroy you. He wins a mammoth 52.4 per cent of his disposals in the forward half, ranked No. 4 among the AFL’s top ball getters.
In fact, in Bontempelli’s eighth game he ducked, dodged and wove past about five Melbourne tacklers before kicking what should have been the goal of the year.
It wasn’t, but it broke the deadlock to deliver his second win and umpires declared his 17 possessions enough to warrant the three Brownlow votes.
In Bontempelli’s five three-vote games, all wins, he averages one goal from 23 possessions.
In Bontempelli’s third season he’s already had eight games with those boxes ticked in an ominous sign.
Chris Judd won the Brownlow in his third season and noted this week that Bontempelli has a “happy knack” of delivering when the Dogs desire most.
And while most of his draft class has been in and out of second-tier footy, Bontempelli never returned to Footscray after just two warm-up games before his debut.
It is that rapid rate of improvement which is why chief Dogs recruiter Simon Dalrymple knew he might be drafting a champion.
“It’s something that I haven’t seen in my 15 years or so of watching TAC Cup footy,” Dalrymple said on draft night.
But why The Bont over Aish, who’s junior CV was exemplary?
“The decision was very much neck and neck, but we just felt in the end Marcus was going to be a bit more difficult to play against in the midfield.
“Part of that is winning your own ball and it’s not that James won’t do that, but Marcus is bigger and has some unique capabilities.”