Chettleburgh motivated by new challenge
Cory Chettleburgh was on the brink of professional football, or so he thought.
It was 2010 and the young midfielder out of Palmerston North was in a two-way battle for the final spot on the Wellington Phoenix roster.
But Ricki Herbert, the coach at the time, opted for Australian striker Mirjan Pavlovic instead.
Seven years have passed since then and Chettleburgh does not appear disconsolate about his where his career has ended up. He is not one to dwell on the past.
‘‘At the time it was hard to swallow but I guess you build a lot of relationships through football and meet a lot of people who have been through a lot of similar situations as you and it’s a very common thing to be that close. There’s a lot of people that are that close and you never really know until you get that bit of paper and your name’s on it,’’ he said.
He may be just 26 years-old but Chettleburgh has already spent more than a decade in the ISPS Handa Premiership. He made his debut for YoungHeart Manawatu at 14 before switching to Team Wellington and then Hawke’s Bay United. He has also had two brief spells in the Netherlands, playing for Sparta Rotterdam and WHC Wezep.
But even if this is the furthest Chettleburgh’s career will go, then so be it, said the former New Zealand age-group international. He is still enjoying himself and is finding new ways to challenge himself too.
‘‘You always want to keep going as far as you can and if this is as far as I get then I guess I’m OK with that, as long as I know that I have done everything I can to get to the spot where I’m as good as I can be. As long as I keep improving and can keep improving then I guess you keep aiming for whatever is next.’’
It is desire to seek new challenges that led Chettleburgh to Tasman United. It took some convincing to leave a successful Hawke’s Bay side, he admitted, but Paul Ifill eventually got him over the line.
‘‘It was just for a change really. Paul has been on at me since Tasman started up to come down, and he even gave it to me this year that ‘this is going to be the last season with me at this level’ but I don’t think it will be, he’ll be giving me the same chat next year,’’ he said.
‘‘It is hard to walk away from a group that is so good. It’s a good environment there and Brett [Angell] is a very good coach. But I guess it’s more about challenging myself, the reason for coming down here, not for anything that Hawke’s Bay did.’’
Although he has put in some strong performances for Hawke’s Bay, Chettleburgh’s most recent season was blighted disciplinary issues. First was the seven-game suspension which carried over from the Central League then, midway through the campaign, he was banned for four more games. On both occasions, Chettleburgh was found guilty of verbally abusing match officials.
‘‘I’ve learnt from those things and I’ve put a lot of that behind me. I have had to focus on sorting that out and hopefully I can play every game with Tasman this year.’’