The Magpie Who Is Head And Shoulders Above The Rest
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 9, 2008
Of Collingwood's young stars, Dale Thomas flies highest. Martin Flanagan reports.
In Nathan Buckley's last year as a player, it has been reported that Collingwood sold twice as many guernseys with Dale Thomas's No.13 on them than Buckley's No.5.Yet Thomas's slight build belies his growing reputation. He might not have Buckley's presence but he is making an impact on the field.Thomas's manner is slightly self-conscious but direct. He's a 20-year-old from Drouin who just loves playing footy and suddenly everyone is poking microphones at him. I want to ask about the high mark, the single, most thrilling feature of the Australian game - when players leap, momentarily position themselves on the shoulders of someone beneath them and pluck the ball from the air. Thomas took such a high mark in his first AFL game. He has been taking them on a reasonably regular basis ever since, combining them with audacious runs such as the one last week that started backwards of the centre and ended in a goal.He says his mother always told him to never forget where he comes from. That was on a little farm of about two hectares outside Drouin."Being from the country, you grow up loving your footy. I was lucky enough to have my own set of goals in the paddock," he says. His first competitive matches, when he was eight, were played with the Hallora under 12s. When asked to register his birth date, he didn't know what it was and repeated the one given by the kid in front of him. He says his mother "loved her footy". She was a Hawthorn supporter. So did his Pa. He barracked for Geelong. So did young Dale. Drouin is also the home of Gary Ablett senior.Young Dale Thomas wore Ablett's No.5 on his Geelong guernsey.Thomas says: "I used to love how he played. He was very exciting. He made the impossible look easy. Wherever he was, he'd fly for the mark and bring it down."As far as his own high marks are concerned, he points out that "it's not something you regularly get the chance to do. A few things have to line up for you. The ball's got to be in the right spot and there has to be someone in front of you". After that, he says, "it's something you do instinctively".The mark that stands out in his mind is the one he took in his first AFL game, against Adelaide. "I was lucky enough to get a sit and managed to hold on to it. One of their taller players had dropped back into the hole," he says.Thomas says he was "brought up to love footy" and the fact is transparently within him. It's why people take such pleasure in his play.Asked his best memory in footy, he starts with getting drafted. Collingwood took him at No.2 in the 2005 draft. And then his first game - "a bit of a weird feeling, actually. This was something I'd been waiting 18 years for". When I ask him his worst footy memories, he first nominates breaking a collarbone in his first year ahead of the loss by five points in last year's preliminary final to Geelong.The point he makes most strongly is that Mick Malthouse encourages him to fly for marks. "Mick says if they're there, have a go at them. You're lucky if you get one chance every couple of weeks."Melbourne, struggling to give any meaning to their season, host the Magpies today at the MCG.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
