Kid who dreamt big joins the immortals

THE cliche that has been trotted out by rookie players over the years did not sit well with Joel Selwood.

“I know when kids walk in they go, ‘I’d like to just play one game’. Mine was bigger than that, I dreamt big,” Selwood says. “I had myself playing more than one game. I wanted to get going. I didn’t want to waste time.”

That is an understatement. He made his debut in Round 1, 2007, and it took him all of a month to show the football world he was a superstar in the making. Ask any of his teammates from that era and they point to the infamous Round 5 game against North Melbourne as the day they knew the kid from Bendigo was something special.

The Cats lost that afternoon at Kardinia Park and afterwards a crisis meeting was called where a lot of home truths were spoken between the players and coach Mark Thompson.

Selwood had been Geelong’s best, single-handedly dragging the Cats back into the contest in the second half as he collected 25 disposals in only his fourth game.

It turned out to be a pivotal moment for the club and the 18-year-old.

Geelong went on to win 19 of its next 20 games, including the 2007 Grand Final by a record margin.

And Selwood went on to become one of the game’s greats, a six-time AllAustralian, three-time best and fairest winner, Brownlow Medal runner-up, three-time premiership star and captain of Geelong for the most games in its history.

“I look back at it now and I’m just so glad that I treated it the way that I did,” he said in the lead-up to his 300th game against the Gold Coast on Saturday.

“Because I played in an era where it was a once-in-alifetime chance to get that band together that we had and to be able to play the footy that we did.

“I was so lucky to be a part of that and when the boys got their act together, to dance with them for a little while was incredible.

“I won 85 out of my first 100 games, it was awesome and when I look back at it I was so happy that I was ready to go, that was the thing more than anything, I was ready to play.”

Selwood is confident about this year despite the Cats’ inconsistency.

“I still think we have put a list together that when we all want to dance together we can beat anyone,” he said.

He is contracted for next year and is open to playing on, depending on his body, with a career in coaching a possibility.

Football has been his life. And it is something he has never shied from.