Each player’s path into the AFL is different. For every player drafted straight out of high school, you have countless others trying to find their way into the AFL by any means necessary.
Top draft picks like Will Phillips and Ben Cunnington are joined by players who’ve come from other clubs like Jaidyn Stephenson and Josh Walker, mid-season recruits like Charlie Ham and Jacob Edward, and everything in between.
Robbie Tarrant is one player who took a road far less travelled in the current age of full-time, professional football, and says his experience of life outside of the game set him up well for a long career at North.
“I had a gap year, so in between school and getting drafted, I went back and worked for Bendigo Bank which was one of the sponsors for Bendigo Pioneers, the TAC Cup side at the time,” Tarrant said in the recent Member Q&A, presented by AIA Vitality.
“It was actually really enjoyable. It was good to get a taste of, I guess, the real world or non-footy life. Straight from school, I was really lucky that I was able to work for, I think, nine months before I got drafted.
“I’ve still got contact with a couple of people from the bank. I look back and I was lucky to get drafted … [it was] a really good time.”
Having played 171 games for North, and captaining the side on multiple occasions, Tarrant knows all about the famous Shinboner Spirit.
After being selected in the 2007 National Draft, he’s seen countless crops of new recruits both succeed and fail at the club, and he says the current group of first year players is worth getting excited about.
“There’s five or six of them that have come in this year, so they’re really tight. I think they all drive each other. They drive the standards of what’s expected in terms of doing the extras,” Tarrant said.
“I’ve just been really impressed with how they’ve all gone about it to be honest. It’s probably been, as a group, one of the more professional groups that’s come in as such young blokes.
“They’re really doing amazing at the minute, so I’m sure they’re all going to have successful careers on the back of that.”
To hear Tarrant discuss North’s current leadership group, his relationship with Ben Cunnington and his potential to move into the forward line, tune into the latest Member Q&A, to be released on Wednesday.
