Melbourne Renegades batsman Beau Webster’s stint on Pies star Brodie Grundy
Beau Webster has been one of the Renegades’ shining lights in an otherwise dim season. But he could have landed on an AFL list - even going toe-to-toe with Pies star Brodie Grundy as a junior.
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Beau Webster likes to tell everyone that an AFL club would’ve drafted him if he’d stuck with footy.
“Especially now that big Will Sutherland is in the team,” Webster, 26, said yesterday.
“I think he actually was a top-10 prospect, but I wind him up saying I would’ve had his measure if we played on each other.”
But those looking to sort fact from fiction only need to revisit Big Beau’s Under-18 game against South Australia from 2012.
“I started in the ruck against Brodie Grundy, and he was as big as he is now back then, so as you can imagine I didn’t touch much of the footy,” Webster said.
“He was a man-child. He ran all over the ground and was just incredible. He put his knees into my chest at the opening bounce and that was pretty much me done for the day.
“I got told to go sit in the forward line.”
Former Melbourne midfielder Jimmy Toumpas roved to Grundy while Hawthorn’s Tim O’Brien spent the day taking hangers and booting goals as South Australia won by 144 points at Blundstone Arena.
Webster met recruiters from Sydney and Geelong however it was clear that the summer sport was his best bet.
So the 200cm batsman who bowls part-time off-spin landed a contract at Tasmania and was later traded from Hobart Hurricanes to Melbourne Renegades in a direct swap for Matthew Wade.
“I should be a pace-bowling all-rounder ... but it’s not the case,” Webster said.
“I would’ve loved to have bowled pace, but I don’t have the back for it. The back hurts after three balls of medium pace.
“I cop plenty of stick for it.”
But this season it has been the quicks bowling to Webster that are copping stick.
The shining light in a wooden-spoon season, Webster needs 39 against Brisbane Heat today to overtake Shaun Marsh’s 449 runs as the club’s most prolific batsman.
The Gades have lost 11 games this summer but in Webster they have found a new No.4. The man nicknamed ‘Slug’ sees off the spinners and catches up against the quicks, averaging 45.7 at a strike-rate of 134.8.
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“I’ve always liked the ball coming on,” he said.
“I’m a back-foot player who can sort of get on top of the bounce a lot.”
New coach Michael Klinger told Webster he was in the team for the season-opener, despite players headed by dumped Test opener Marcus Harris missing the cut.
“I didn’t really expect to play too much cricket for the Renegades at all,” Webster said.
“But he put the faith in me and batted me at No.5 in the first game.
“I thought that was a huge vote of confidence with some of the other guys that missed out that have been playing at the Renegades for years.”
Webster – already contracted for next summer – wants the franchise to re-sign Klinger for next season and would also be keen to discuss a Big Bash extension.
“I love coming to Melbourne for the summer. I might have a chat and see if we can get extended because I don’t want to go anywhere,” he said.