By RUSSELL BENNETT
GARFIELD youngster Eddie Morris knows footy is a simple game – both at the elite level, and in the junior ranks.
“It all comes back to just playing footy rather than thinking of who you’re playing against or why you’re playing,” he said at the Garfield Recreation Reserve on the weekend.
“The more simple it is the less you’ve got to worry or think about anything really.
“Your ability and hard work just comes into play then.”
The 19-year-old hard-as-nails midfielder has just come off a standout season in the VFL playing for the Casey Scorpions.
He was recently invited to Melbourne to train prior to the AFL draft period, which starts with the national draft on 27 November and concludes on 3 December with the pre-season and rookie drafts.
He’s on the radar of AFL clubs – he wouldn’t be invited to train at Melbourne otherwise – but Morris won’t be cut up or distraught if he misses out.
“I’m just looking at it as an opportunity to get a good start for pre-season and seeing how I should train at that level, and then take that back to Casey and lift my standard again there,” said the former Gippsland Power best and fairest winner.
“I’m honestly not that worried if I don’t get picked up – if it happens it happens.”
“They reckon they just take the elite kids at 18-years-old now and then look at the next group in a couple of years’ time.
“You just can’t really take anything out of being told a club is looking at you because there’s nothing definite in that.”
Morris knows exactly how crucial it is to keep things in perspective.
“You could get carried away very easily,” he said.
“I read an interesting article about Tom Couch and how he’s training some guys in the lead-up to the draft, and what he went through (dealing with draft rejection).
“He said you have to stay level-headed because it could just as easily be taken away from you… just like that.”
Morris has had to juggle a hell of a whirlwind couple of weeks’ – combining training at Melbourne with his university exams.
But, unsurprisingly, he’s handled it with a sense of calm.
Make no mistake though – now his exams are over, he’s leaving no stone unturned in his mission to prove himself in time for the draft.
“The first game I was able to really flourish in this year was against Richmond – I just felt good that day,” Morris said about his season at the Scorpions.
“It started early when I got a few tackles – that’s what gets me going.”
Some things never change. Morris was the Power’s leading tackler in 2013 and also ranked in the top 10 in kicks, overall disposals, inside 50s and score assists.
“The coaches identified that after a few weeks – they said when your defensive game is up and going that’s when you’re really dangerous offensively.”
Now, for Morris, it’s a matter of continuing to prove his consistency, endurance and all-around fitness. None of the three are weaknesses, but having trained at Melbourne, he knows the level of improvement required to make it.
Still, if he’s not picked up he knows life, and footy, goes on.
