YOU CAN BANK ON SPARGO
MEET unbeaten reigning premier Melbourne’s most unlikely league leader.
Charlie Spargo, all 173cm of him, has become the latest weapon in the Demons’ everincreasing arsenal as they chase back-to-back flags.
No one in the AFL has a better percentage of marks taken inside 50 off his kicks than the 22-year-old small forward.
Spargo’s ability to weave through traffic and make the right decision on those “money kicks” more often than not, has long been valued internally.
So while Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver command most of the headlines, the emergence of players such as Spargo, who just inked a new three-year deal, is crucial to the Demons’ dominance.
His turning point, after faltering following an 18-game debut season, came during the AFL’s Covidenforced season suspension in 2020. Spargo spent much of that extraordinary threemonth period back home in Albury, where his father, ex-Kangaroo Paul, delivered the words that sparked the making of his son as a footballer.
“I feel like my dad was the one who might have given me the kick in the arse,” Spargo said. “He said, ‘You’re a talented player, but you need to decide if you want to be a guy who’s around the mark, in the team some weeks, or you want to be a good AFL player’.
“I feel like I made that decision then and there, to get fit and strong and put myself in a good spot going forward.”