My Story: Brayden Maynard reflects on Dom Sheed’s Grand Final goal and the free kick that wasn’t paid, and how close he came to being a Crow instead of Magpie
Brayden Maynard is having a career-best season but what many might not know is that his career was at the crossroads a few years ago. He reveals the conversation with Scott Pendlebury that changed everything.
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To this day I still get asked about it.
I might be on the street or out with some mates when the question will come from a stranger.
“Mate, can you tell me, was it a hold?”
My answer is always the same: “Absolutely it was”.
I’m referring to my involvement in Dom Sheed’s matchwinning goal in the dying stages of the 2018 Grand Final.
I still feel I would have been a good chance to spoil the mark had it not been for the block from Willie Rioli.
You can see in the footage I was quite angry at the umpire for not calling it.
On the replay I saw he put his whistle to his mouth to blow it, but then he doesn’t.
It’s hard to escape the incident.
Either it will pop up on a TV ad or I’ll be scrolling through social media when vision of the goal will come up.
There’ll always be something to remind me of it, but I just use it as motivation now.
I’ve never watched a replay of the game, just snippets of the block and goal.
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It’s something I have to live with and I’m fine with that.
The other incident I vividly remember from the day was being crunched by Liam Ryan during the second term.
We’d been getting into each other for a bit leading up to that, but I didn’t know it was Liam who had got me.
Someone told me as I was going off, which led to me yelling some words in his direction that I probably can’t put into print.
I let him know about it.
It winded the hell out of me, but the loss hurt a hell of a lot more.
I’ve moved on, although I still see 2018 as one of the craziest years of my life.
There was plenty of adversity with injuries and the passing of Travis Varcoe’s sister in particular, but it made us tighter as a group.
It was a sad day but one I’ll never forget as it was the first grand final I’ve played in, which I’m grateful for.
Hopefully we’ll be back there before long.
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MY PRE-GAME TRIBUTE
Before the start of every game, I have the same ritual.
On both wrists I have a tattoo of the signatures of my two grandfathers.
Before the bounce, I always make a point to touch both my wrists with a kiss in honour of them.
On my left wrist is the signature of my maternal grandfather, Graham Campbell.
He played 151 games with Fitzroy in the 1950s and 60s, before coaching them in the 70s along with West Perth in the WAFL and Glenelg in the SANFL.
Sadly, he has been struggling with dementia recently.
On my right wrist is my other grandfather, Kenny Maynard.
Sadly, he passed away a few weeks before I made my AFL debut.
I was quite close to both of them, and getting the tattoos was a family thing that started on my mum’s side.
A few of my cousins and my uncle in Adelaide got it done, and I thought it would be nice to do it as well.
Footy was such a huge part of my life growing up, which was when I was moving between Adelaide and Melbourne a lot.
Dad was working as a general manager of some radio stations, which kept us on the move.
I started off as a Carlton fan because dad ran for them, and then he got a job at Melbourne when I was a bit older.
It meant I became a Dees fan but I still kept a soft spot for the Blues.
I just loved watching footy no matter who was playing.
I’ve always been around footy and started playing Auskick down at Hurlingham Park in Brighton when I was 7.
My brother, Corey, is five years older and we were always competitive growing up, whether it was with the footy, the basketball or the PlayStation remote.
He normally won and I was the one to throw the tantrum.
We’ve always been close and I’m so proud of his sporting journey, from playing college hoops at Madison Square Garden in New York to the NBL and then the AFL with Melbourne.
He’s taught me so much and made me a better person.
As a youngster as I got older and chubbier I thought footy was my go, so I joined the Hampton Rovers junior football club.
I played most of my juniors there until we moved to Adelaide for a few years, where I played for the PHOS Camden football club and made my first rep team.
There are some photos of me still around from when I played for the under-12 South Australian team.
As the years progressed I got bigger and then came back to Melbourne, where I rejoined Hampton and then played TAC Cup with the Sandy Dragons.
ALMOST BECOMING A CROW
Had my dad, Peter, played just four more SANFL games by the end of 1990, there’s every chance I’d be a Crow today.
He had played 196 games to then, and the AFL required 200 SANFL games by the end of 1990 to be eligible for the Crows father-son rule as Adelaide came into the AFL in 1991.
He played 216 SANFL games, 196 with Glenelg and then 20 with Woodville West Torrens.
Those last 20 games, however, were played in 1991, which meant I didn’t qualify.
Had I been eligible I would have loved to have gone to the Crows as I have a lot of family in Adelaide.
I honestly didn’t care where I went in the draft, I was just hungry for an opportunity and it soon arose.
BECOMING A PIE
It seemed everyone knew I was a Magpie before I did.
It was draft night in 2014 and I was watching it at home with one of my best mates and my family.
At around pick 25, the telecast cut from the live draft to an interview with No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin.
It meant the names of the picks were just rolling along at the bottom of the screen.
We’re sitting there watching Paddy wondering when the next names would be announced.
We were still in the dark when my phone exploded.
I was getting messages saying things like “go pies!” and “black and white!”
We rewound the TV and saw at the bottom of the screen on the ticker tape I’d been taking by Collingwood, which led to a lot of excitement and hugs.
It actually said ‘press red to watch the live draft’ but we obviously missed that at the time.
My parents awkwardly started singing ‘Good old Collingwood forever’ for the first time in their lives.
A STRANGE WAY TO DEBUT
I thought my AFL debut was going to be called off.
My first game in the black and white in 2015 coincided with probably one of the saddest days in AFL history with the passing of Adelaide coach Phil Walsh.
It was to be a Friday night at the MCG against Hawthorn in front of 80,000 people.
But all the talk during the day was whether or not the game would proceed.
My dad and I were talking about it during the day and I was trying to stay focused on the game.
There was so much going through my head because it was my first game and I was nervous and excited.
It was all very emotional, and that is my biggest memory of the day.
After the game we got in that circle with both clubs arm in arm, which the coaches organised.
It was very powerful because it spread to lots of different other footy leagues and all players did it at every game across all levels.
To be a part of that was seriously special and something I’ll always remember.
THE WAKE-UP CALL
I’ll never forget the day I was pulled into a meeting and told to pull my head in.
It was early in my days at Collingwood when skipper Scott Pendlebury and the leaders said they wanted a chat.
Pendles pretty much told me I was at a crossroads and my footy career can go one way or the other.
He said I had a seriously good opportunity in front of me as long as I did the right things.
It hit me between the eyes.
Early on I didn’t have my priorities right and my social life was probably taking over my footy career.
It was a definite wake-up call hearing that from Pendles.
I can still hang out with my mates and have a good time with them, but footy’s my No.1 priority and I love playing.
To this day I’m so grateful for that chat because it’s led me to where I am today.
GETTING UP EACH WEEK
As a defender, my preparation doesn’t change.
2020 has been a crazy year and we haven’t had access to some things we usually would, but I’ve tried to keep it as normal as possible.
I find out who I’m on, do some research on them, see what they do at stoppages and around the ground and how they run.
Come game day you just have to be ready, because I tend to play on some of the game’s best small forwards.
I can do all the research, but anything can happen on game day and they do sometimes pull out tricks I’ve never seen before.
The year’s been very taxing for a lot of players, but I think because we’re settled now and in Queensland and with our partners or families, we know what to expect.
I’ve been really enjoying being with my partner Ashlee in the hub and I’m loving the Queensland weather, but I do miss my dog Simon so much.
He’s with my brother and I’ve been getting videos of him in action, so I know he’s in good care.
Originally published as My Story: Brayden Maynard reflects on Dom Sheed’s Grand Final goal and the free kick that wasn’t paid, and how close he came to being a Crow instead of Magpie
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