""He loves his footy, he loves being in the footy environment and has always fitted very well into groups and he just has a good friendly personality.""
Originally from Cairns, Dempsey was selected at number 19 at the National Draft, the Bombers second overall pick. Recruited from Morningside, Queensland as a medium midfielder/forward, Dempsey has explosive pace and is strong overhead. His 7.99sec agility run was the second fastest overall at the AFL Draft camp, emphasising his uncanny evasive skills.
Standing at 184cm and weighing a slight 68kg, Browning believes Dempsey’s height is an advantage with the potential to eventually become a damaging midfielder once the 18-year-old gets stronger. But it is this strength that he will have to work on over the next 12 months.
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""He needs to work on that pretty hard, but it will be a natural adaptation of the body and the extra work required to play league footy consistently,"" Browning said.
""It might take him another 12 months, but then you see kids like Andrew Lovett and Aaron Davey playing and when you have the leg speed he might play senior footy next year. He developed so quickly in the last 12 months and maybe towards then end of the year he may be pushing towards senior selection.""
Representing Queensland in the 2005 U18 championships, Dempsey was a fine player for the Allies against Victoria in Grand Final week, but it was his performance in a TAC Cup match that impressed Browning the most.
""I actually thought his best game, which probably showed a lot of people that he was mentally strong enough, was against Ballarat,"" he said.
""It was absolutely freezing cold and him being from Cairns of course and used to the tropics, we got belted as a team but Courtenay was probably in the best two players. I thought that was the day that really convinced me that he had the mental capacity to adapt to league footy,"" Browning explained.
