Geelong wingman Sam Menegola reveals why he turned down offers from Hawthorn and St Kilda
Sam Menegola’s AFL career was in the balance at the end of 2011. The midfielder had an offer from St Kilda and a contract on the table at Hawthorn, but chose neither. This is how he went from the AFL wilderness to become a Geelong star.
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When Fremantle cut me at the end of 2014, I went through a whole range of emotions.
They were already my second club, I was still yet to play a senior game after four years in the system and my AFL dream was in tatters.
Firstly I actually felt a prevailing sense of relief.
It had been so hard for the three years at Fremantle that I actually felt some excitement and liberation about what I could do next.
Then came the disappointment of what it could mean for my AFL career.
Is it over? Could it be finished?
That led to some anger washing over me, and a wanting to prove the decision makers at Fremantle wrong.
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One of the good pieces of advice I received at the time was from a former teammate who had been through it before.
“You’ll experience a heap of different emotions at different times,” he told me.
“It will be a bit of a rollercoaster and the best thing you can do is not fight them, just ride them out.”
That proved to be really good advice, and that is the best way I can describe the experience.
Initially I wasn’t particularly fazed about getting back to the AFL.
I just wanted to rediscover my love of the game.
I didn’t feel like I’d played the kind of footy I was capable of and I wanted to get to that point in the WAFL.
That led me to joining Subiaco, which was a good change for me and I felt they had a strong culture that would help me back.
A big part of that was getting to play in the midfield rather than as a forward or a tagger, which is what I was doing previously.
I started to enjoy footy again, and then I got injured.
It was an ankle syndesmosis injury, which meant I was out for a large chunk of the season.
That hit me hard and it was almost harder news to face than my delisting months earlier.
Although it ended well by being able to get back and be part of a WAFL premiership, which made me smile more than I had for a long time.
It wasn’t until late in the year that I seemed to get back on the radar of AFL clubs.
One of those clubs that reached out was Geelong.
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BECOMING A CAT
I’D had a few disappointing draft night parties in the past.
It was for that reason that I purposely kept the night of the 2015 AFL Draft very low key.
My parents and my now wife Emma were the only ones in the room.
I went into the draft knowing Geelong were interested and that was exciting, but I had to temper that because I’d been let down in the past.
The room was small but when my name got read out by Geelong it was a great moment.
They would be my third club and my third chance to prove my worth.
It had already been a long journey to this point.
EARLY DAYS IN WA
ONE of my earliest memories is waking mum and dad up most mornings dressed ready to go to Auskick and asking if it was the day to go to Auckick.
On the six days of the week it wasn’t Sunday, I was always disappointed.
When it wasn’t Auskick there was plenty of kick to kick in the backyard with dad or at the park down the road.
Dad says that from when I walked I wanted to kick.
The mighty Booragoon Bulldogs were my first junior club, and like a lot of Western Australian kids at that time I was a West Coast Eagles fan and loved Chris Judd, Daniel Kerr and Ben Cousins.
I was obsessed with footy from the start and always wanted to be a footballer.
MISSING THE DRAFT
MY draft year as an 18-year-old was in 2010, and I wasn’t confident.
At least not in the main draft, but I more thought the rookie draft would be my best chance
It helped having a good manager in Colin Young, who I’ve been with my whole way through, as he helped manage my expectations.
I missed out and I had to wait two weeks for the rookie draft, which felt about a month.
Although I was lucky enough to go and train with Fremantle for about a week during that time, so that was a good distraction.
During that period I had a good chat with a few different clubs, so I was relatively confident I’d find a club.
I had no idea which one, and it turned out to be Hawthorn.
IN THE HAWKS’ NEST
I DIDN’T want to reveal this part to mum and dad, although I feel enough time has passed that they’ll get over it.
The truth is I was initially really excited to move away from WA.
As a young 18-year-old, moving to Melbourne to play AFL is exciting.
They were an amazing football club and I really enjoyed my time there being able to learn off some great players.
It was a good year, although for most of it I was injured with a broken bone in my wrist.
At the end of the year Hawthorn offered me a contract there to stay on as a rookie.
St Kilda and Fremantle had both been talking to my manager and were both really keen as well.
I had a tough decision to make.
The Saints were offering a senior list position and then there was Fremantle offering me a rookie spot but also the huge lure of going home.
Once I got past the novelty of living in Melbourne, I’d realised how much I missed Perth.
At that stage I was really homesick so I decided I wouldn’t sign a contract at Hawthorn, which meant they delisted me.
I was soon at my second AFL club in two years.
LIFE AT THE DOCKERS
THE early days were good.
Being able to see my family and friends was enjoyable, and during that time I met my now wife Emma.
Personally it was all great, but professionally not so much.
My football didn’t go that well for me in my time at the Dockers.
In my first year I got a full season of WAFL footy and then I missed the full second year with knee surgery.
The first half of my third year I also missed with another knee injury, so I didn’t have great luck on the injury front.
As a young player it helps if you can get some continuity in your game, but I wasn’t able to do that.
It was a driven and focused group, which was good to be a part of, but I just couldn’t get that first game away.
They cut me and I spent a year in the WAFL, before the Cats came knocking.
LIFE AT THE CATTERY
BLOODY cold.
I won’t lie, that was my immediate impression when I first arrived in Geelong.
I had to quickly go out and buy a few more jackets because it was a lot colder than I was expecting.
I thought I had an idea of how cold it would be as I’d lived in Melbourne previously, but those extra couple of degrees you lose going down the highway shocked me a little bit.
At the club, the first thing I noticed was they just did things very differently to Fremantle, which felt refreshing.
I really enjoyed their approach to things and it agreed with me.
There were opportunities in the midfield and I was lucky the coaches liked me and gave me a chance.
I was also fortunate I had good players around me who guided and supported me.
I really enjoy how our club embraces everyone for who they are and they don’t ask anyone to change, which is such a great trait of the Cats.
As players we get a lot of autonomy, which gives us the space and the freedom to play our footy instinctively.
It all agreed with me and I settled right in.
LONG AWAITED DEBUT
IN the week I would debut, I remember feeling a bit annoyed.
I felt I’d had a pretty good game in the VFL the week before, but I didn’t win selection.
By game day I had calmed down as I arrived in the rooms at GMHBA Stadium as an emergency.
I was pretty relaxed because I wasn’t playing, and then it happened.
About an hour before the bounce, Chris Scott came up to me and said: “Are you ready to play? We’ll bring you in if you’re ready.”
I obviously said I was, so it was on.
I got ready, did a warm up and tried to get my head in it.
The media manager was in the room and I quickly asked him to let Emma and my dad know I was debuting.
It was a bit of a mad scramble.
Thankfully Dad was already over from Perth at the time so he was able to get to the game.
It was against Adelaide on a Saturday night in late July, and to this day it was one of the coldest games I’ve played in.
There was no way I was going to rock the long sleeve jumper for my first game, so I just had to grin and bear it.
It was an awesome night and we had a win, but my biggest memory is seeing the look on Emma’s face after the game.
That and having a coffee with dad the next day as we replayed the whole night.
Just seeing the reactions of the people who had been along for the ride was really nice.
At the end of that first year at Geelong, I remember sitting back and thinking ‘man, it took a long time to tick off that first game.’
From there I’ve never looked back.
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MY NEW FAMILY
IN May, Emma and I welcomed our first born, Otis.
It’s been wonderful.
It’s had its challenges but we’d hardly be alone in that regard and we wouldn’t change it for the world.
Moving hotels isn’t much fun with all the stuff you need with a newborn, but having them here has been amazing.
It’s probably made some of the time go a little bit quicker because we get to spend so much time together as a family.
There’s been no easy way to get through this year, but they’ve made it a lot easier.
Originally published as Geelong wingman Sam Menegola reveals why he turned down offers from Hawthorn and St Kilda