By Jonty Ralphsmith
“I didn’t want the expectation this year to change the perception of who I am.” Mitch Szybkowski.
Beaconsfield junior coach Dave Phillips sits back in his chair at Mitch Szybkowski’s house and exhales.
He takes a few seconds to think of how to describe the player who captained back-to-back premierships under his coaching and who is now all but certain to get picked up in the AFL national draft in November.
“Pretty good,” he musters up after a few seconds of reflection about his player’s feats.
The first place he goes when describing Szybkowski is his leadership under pressure.
There are two games across the three years that best highlight his competitive on-field attitude: the pair of triumphant grand finals, in under 13’s and under 14’s.
Both matches were against arch-rivals Berwick, the first one on a hot day at Lynbrook.
“It was a great game but Mitch took the game away from Berwick,” Phillips said.
“He kicked six goals from the midfield and I was standing on the interchange in awe of what he produced.
“It was the biggest game he had played in.
“As a 12 year old to put in a performance like that – it’ll stick with me forever that game.
“He destroyed them and Berwick did not have an answer for him.
“He’s a big game player, he wanted the occasion, he owned it.”
Close mate and opponent on the day Jaxon Binns estimated he had 45 to 50 touches in the performance that saw him named best on ground.
The following year was a different game out at Casey Fields and Szybkowski was workmanlike rather than spectacular, but when the moment came, it was Szybkowski who stole the show.
Having trailed all day, it was ‘Sibba’ that kicked the goal to give his team the win in the dying stages of the final quarter.
“His teammate saw him and put the ball in Mitch’s vicinity and he just rose above the pack, he’s taken this clutch mark and kicked the clutch goal afterwards,” Phillips said.
That summation from Phillips just about sums up his junior career.
Szybkowski always found a way to rise beyond his peers and stand out.
He won five club best and fairests as a junior, three league best and fairests and made interleague each year from under 13’s.
“I told Mitch’s mum after the under 14’s grand final that I will be watching Mitch in the AFL,” Phillips recalled.
“She just laughed at me going ‘no you won’t’ and I said ‘I will, trust me’ and here we are on the brink of Mitch achieving his dream that he has worked so damn hard for.”
Szybkowski says he relishes the big games:
“I always want the ball in my hands, I thrive in those bigger moments, I want to be the one that is under pressure and have the ‘follow me’ attitude,” he said.
While those are the types of occasions that underscored why the Rays always saw him as the standout 2004-born talent in the region, it was Szybkowski’s work ethic that stood out to his coaches.
Szybkowski immediately impressed that upon both Phillips and Dandenong coach Nick Cox.
Phillips had heard a bit about Szybkowski’s talent prior to coaching him and still remembers the hunger when he first met the highly rated junior after a Christmas concert at Beaconsfield Primary School ahead of the under 13’s preseason.
“I met with him and the six other boys and gave them a training program – I wanted to see who would buy in and do the program over the summer and you could see straight away that Mitch’s eyes lit up: it was something he wanted to do,” Phillips said.
“So we rolled into the first night of preseason and I hit this group with a two (kilometre) time trial and Mitch has come out and slammed everyone.
“He was lapping blokes, then after he completed it, he went back and ran with the stragglers.
“That spoke volumes about Mitch the person, the character, the selflessness.”
On the rare occasions that Szybkowski struggled to assert himself on the games in the succeeding two years, Phillips said he would work harder to get from contest to contest, stay in the moment and open up his teammates.
So fond was Phillips of Szybkowski, he gave his star footballer his first job, hiring him for some summer shifts at his garden maintenance business and was pleased but unsurprised to see that can-do mentality translate off the footy field.
Now 18, Szybkowski said his work ethic comes naturally, having spent most weekends since he was 10 watching his older sister play netball and Beaconsfield’s seniors.
“I would always make sure I would go into the huddles at halftime, and quarter time, and after the game, go listen to the song and hang around there and just at training’s (I was) always hanging back,” Szybkowski said.
“I feel like that’s how I learned a lot about preparation and separated myself early on.”
While he repeatedly stood up on the field, having always been the captain of his junior sides largely because of how well credentialed he was as a player, he entered the Rays program in the under-15’s V-Line Cup as a relatively quiet character.
Szybkowski recalls Cox putting the onus on him at the beginning of the season to stand up and round off his leadership, having been voted in by his peers, and Cox was pleased with his progression.
“He was a pretty quiet kid, didn’t say too much and that has been the biggest change in him this year – we’ve been proud with how he has brought everyone in and talked and reciprocated more,” Cox said.
“Not many people see it but that has been one of the biggest changes for Mitch this season.
“At presentation night where he gave a really good speech to the group about the year and what it meant to him.
“The practice match against Sandy, I gave him and a few others a spray about not taking responsibility as leaders, but (after that) he just took responsibility as a leader and understood what was required off the field, talking to players, and realised he was looked up at and had to be better with his verbal stuff which he has been.”
Seen as a prospect that could push the top 10 in the AFL draft coming into the season, the prevailing belief now is he will go in the second round.
His fall is more so a result of others pushing themselves up than any of his own shortfalls, having established himself as one of the prime big-bodied inside distributors at the Dandenong Stingrays, Caulfield Grammar and Vic Country.
“Heading into the year, there was talk that my inside game wasn’t up to the level so I wanted to showcase my inside game and play consistent footy which I was able to do across the year,” said Szybkowski, who averaged 23 disposals and four tackles in his seven NAB League games.
“At the national champs I had to showcase inside and outside.
“I feel like I was able to show what I could do on inside but also spread on outside and get used.
“That is probably one of the top strengths I have so to be able to shut down the talk that I wasn’t up to the level and reflect on it now, I think I have put a full stop on it.
“The other thing was, I didn’t want the expectation this year to change the perception of who I am so that was something I focused on.”
Come November 29, Phillips’ draft prophecy and the Stingrays’ long-held expectation looks set to become reality.
SZYBKOWSKI JUNIOR ACCOLADES
Club Best and Fairests: Under 9s, Under 11s, Under 12s, Under 13s, Under 14s
South Eastern Junior Football League Best and Fairests: Under 11s, Under 13s, Under 14s
Interleague representation: Under 13s (captain), Under 14s, Under 15s
Under 13s Lindsay Patching Medal (most votes across age groups in SEJFL)
Under 13s and Under 14s Premiership captain
Under 13s grand final best on ground
2022 Dandenong Stingrays and Caulfield Grammar captain
2021-22 Vic Country representative
2022 Under 18 Australian representative
