Thursday, 29 December 2011
Mark Macgugan for essendonfc.com.au
Page 1 of 1

If persistence counts for anything in footy, then new Essendon rookie Lauchlan Dalgleish looks set for a successful career.

Cut by his TAC Cup team as a 17-year-old, seriously injured just before this year's NAB AFL Combine, and then overlooked in the November draft; for a while it seemed the super-quick left-footer just wasn't meant to find his way onto an AFL list.

But through each setback, Dalgleish had the maturity and determination to push on, and got his reward when the Bombers took him at pick 11 in the December rookie draft.

The secret has been a willingness to seek out and take on criticism that would help him improve.

When he failed to make the final cut at the North Ballarat Rebels at the beginning of 2010, Dalgleish went to his local club Ararat and asked coach Scott Turner (the former Richmond Tiger) for a shot at senior footy.

A year later, he arrived back at North Ballarat trials a different player.

"You could just see the improvement in not only his running – he'd gotten a bit quicker – but we also noticed that his kicking had improved, he was stronger in the body, and was gaining a lot more possessions during our practices matches," Rebels region manager Phil Partington told essendonfc.com.au.

Second time around, Dalgleish not only made the Rebels' squad, but quickly became a regular – and key contributor – in the team.

An outstanding sprinter who had done the rounds of the country gifts after being taken on by an Ararat athletics coach, the sight of Dalgleish dashing down the wing became a weekly occurrence in the TAC Cup.

"The game I most remember was when we played Geelong Falcons at Skilled Stadium," recalled Partington.

"In the first half he got hold of a few balls, and he'd just take off.

"There's not too many players in the TAC Cup who can catch him when he's up and going.

"But the beauty about him also, when he's running at full pace he's got the ability not to break stride when he kicks the football – he can steady going flat out, which is a really good feature of his game.

"So there were many times when he'd take three or four bounces and have a running shot from 45 to 50 metres out and kick the goal."

Just as AFL clubs were beginning to take notice, disaster struck only weeks out from the crucial NAB AFL Combine.

Minutes before half-time in the Rebels' final against Oakleigh, Dalgleish was illegally cannoned into at a marking contest.

"I didn't know what had hit me," Dalgleish said.

"I went up for a mark and as I was coming down I felt a really sharp pain go through my right side.

"He'd hit me with his elbow, and I knew something wasn't right.

"I played on a little bit, but I couldn't really breathe properly so I went off and went to see the doctor."

That doctor told the young hopeful he had a punctured lung.

"It meant he couldn't raise a sweat or increase his breathing in the month before the combine, in case it deflated the lung again," Partington said.

"Two or three days before the combine we still weren't sure whether he was going to be able to test."

But not only was he able to test, he also performed remarkably well, coming second overall in the 30-metre repeat sprint, third in the 20-metre sprint, fourth in the agility run and, for good measure, fourth in the clean hands test.

"I would have loved to have seen him fully fit, because he achieved those results with four of five weeks of no physical work behind him," Partington said.

Understandably, the combine performance, plus his consistently improving form at TAC Cup level, had Dalgleish hopeful of having his name read out on November 24.

When it wasn't, it would have been easy to sulk.

Instead, Dalgleish took the same approach he'd taken after being cut by the Rebels – immediately getting his "head down and arse up," as Partington put it.

"I was definitely disappointed," Dalgleish said.

"After it happened I got back into training and tried to get a bit of information from some of the clubs as to why I didn't get picked up and what I could improve on.

"I just tried to get myself out there and give myself the best chance to get picked up in the rookie draft."

The day after the draft, Dalgleish was on the training track with the North Ballarat Roosters.

On the Sunday he ran in, and won, the Terang Gift.

And by Monday, with the help of Partington, he'd received an invite to train with Essendon.

Three weeks later, the Bombers called out "Lauchlan Dalgleish" over the phone hook-up into AFL House.

After two years of consistent hard work to get there, the real hard work had just begun.

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