Family battle makes Hugh’s debut special

STARING down family anguish before ditching a professional basketball career for AFL’s great unknown saw Hugh Greenwood blitz a “ballsy” Adelaide debut with rare perspective.

Greenwood has been the talk of Adelaide since a threegoal entrance against Brisbane last Saturday that underlined why the Crows took a punt on a rangy US college basketballer.

Behind the hype Greenwood has stood up in a family battle where mother Andree “was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and been battling it since”. Greenwood, 25, resolved to “grow his hair” until raising $100,000 for breast cancer research and shearing the blond locks last year.

Acing an AFL start against Brisbane — after 18 months on Adelaide’s list preceded by eight years focusing on an NBA dream — was another step in his journey.

“It’s really special. The reality is my mum shouldn’t be here but she fought and I made a promise I’d be here and she’d see me play my debut and we did that,” Greenwood said.

“I just wanted a Gatorade shower, that’s all I needed.”

An underage football star in Tasmania, Greenwood accepted an Australian Institute of Sport basketball scholarship at 16. Greenwood graduated from the University of New Mexico, and was eyeing a Rio 2016 Olympics spot for the Boomers and a spot on the Utah Jazz NBA roster.

Having attempted to lure Greenwood back to AFL on successive visits to the US, Crows national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie had thrown in the towel when the Tasmanian signed with Perth Wildcats in 2015.

One phone call from Greenwood changed everything for a kid willing to “pull the trigger” in one of sport’s stomach churning calls.

“It was very difficult, a ballsy thing to do, he had just signed with Perth,” recalled Ogilvie, a constant in Greenwood’s football journey coaching the forward/midfielder in Tasmania’s under-age system.

“I had given up. Once he signed with Perth I thought we were done. He rang me on a Friday and said I want to talk to you, can you come and see me. It was a surprise, he wanted to come home.”

Greenwood was expected to struggle with the physical demands of AFL after years in a non-contact environment.

“That is one thing that has really surprised me. He has done a lot of tackling work,” said Ogilvie. “He’s putting on extra weight for the hits and has been sore at times but is pretty durable.

“His time is now.”