Nick ‘Souva’ Larkey was pretty quiet when he walked through the doors of Arden Street three years ago, but since then he’s come out of his shell and we’ve become good mates.
We’ve moved in together with another teammate, Declan Watson, and we’ve got a decent system going.
Souva can’t cook to save his life, instead I’m the cook in our household and he makes up for it in other areas with his cleaning and general housework.
He’s a talented artist, too, and has painted some of the artwork that we’ve got around our house, including one of the three of us.
As a trio we often visit Bunnings – it’s our favourite store!
A few weeks ago we bought a leaf blower even though we don’t have a yard!
It’s often used to clean our house and it’s been doing a decent job so far.
Souva is an incredibly caring person and will always go out of his way for other people, but he’s got some annoying traits too.
As soon as Dec or I put Netflix or free-to-air TV on, he comes into the lounge room and criticises our choices – he’s never satisfied.
He’s more of a Home and Away or current affairs person. So much so, that he loves reading about himself.
When a photo of the two of us featured in the paper on Monday, after our five-goal hauls against St Kilda, he cut me out and put himself on our fridge!
But, I don’t want to ridicule him too much.
Souva is one of the most hard-working and professional people I know.
He spends countless hours at the club working on his football and physical preparation to give himself the best chance of being in our best-22.
As the season progresses, his work rate and ability has started to come to fruition and he’s shown just how impressive he can be at AFL level.
Despite being the ultimate professional he only eats well because I cook for him.
If it wasn’t for me he’d be eating KFC every night!
He’s also not the most punctual person, often arriving 45 minutes late to our brunches, but when it comes to meetings at the football club he finds a way.
He’ll slip in 30 seconds before it starts. Even though he’s cutting it fine, he’s always in attendance!
All in all, I can’t speak highly enough about him and the way he goes about his football and as a friend.
I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of his career unfold.
AFL RISING STAR NOMINEES IN 2019
Round 1 — Bailey Scott (NMFC)
Round 2 — Charlie Constable (Geelong)
Round 3 — Connor Rozee (Port Adelaide)
Round 4 — Sam Walsh (Carlton)
Round 5 — Jack Petruccelle (West Coast)
Round 6 — Xavier Duursma (Port Adelaide)
Round 7 — Cameron Zurhaar (North Melbourne)
Round 8 — Gryan Miers (Geelong)
Round 9 — Bailey Smith (Western Bulldogs)
Round 10 – Liam Baker (Richmond)
Round 11 – Sydney Stack (Richmond)
Round 12 – Tarryn Thomas (North Melbourne)
Round 13 – Dylan Clarke (Essendon)
Round 14 – Nick Blakey (Sydney)
Round 15 – Jordan Clark (Geelong)
Round 16 – Nick Larkey (North Melbourne)
This article originally appeared at - http://www.aflplayers.com.au/article/in-the-nick-of-time-souva-larkey-delivers/
