SMITH ON THE TRACK TO TOP
THE path is well trodden.
Tom Stewart, Tom Atkins and Ryan Abbott are all Geelong VFL graduates now on the Cats’ AFL list.
And in a couple of years, we could be seeing another.
Luke Smith may only stand 177cm, but the 21-year-old forward from Shepparton has caught some eyes that matter in his first season at Geelong.
“As soon as we started training, a lot of the VFL coaches were saying, ‘Gee we might have something’,” Geelong VFL men’s team coordinator Nathan Tweddle said this week before tomorrow’s curtain-raiser clash with Sandringham at GMHBA Stadium.
“He plays his role perfectly. He generally plays small but he can get up the ground and his defensive pressure is elite.”
Smith has booted 11 goals in nine games at VFL level, as well as averaging four tackles a game in a breakout season after Box Hill also tried to snare the goalsneak over summer.
He played his first two games in Geelong for Bell Park in the GFL. There he booted seven goals on debut and five in the next.
Not surprisingly, he has only appeared once more for Bell Park, and in that game he kicked six. The Dragons may not see him again.
“I said to him we saw him playing between three and five games for the season,” Tweddle said.
“But over the course of the pre-season he was the one who surprised us a fair bit, just with his ability to find goals and his skill level.
“There’s always one who jumps out of the box every year, and he’s certainly been that player for us this year.”
The playing group quickly dubbed Smith “Milney” due to his goal-smart similarities with former St Kilda small forward Stephen Milne.
Tweddle believes Smith’s “ceiling is really high”.
The VFL and AFL programs are closely aligned, and Smith is putting his name up in lights.
“We’re hopeful he sees it as a two or three-year thing to commit to at the VFL with an end goal of getting an opportunity at the highest level,” he said.
“More clubs are after those pressure forwards, and Geelong have been one to change their game style around the high half-forwards and the tackling pressure. Smithy does that really well. If he can take his game to another level, you’ll see him come on to the radar of not only our club but a lot of AFL clubs I’d say.”