Dale Morris' AFL career makes good reading for young kids trying to break into the game's elite level.
As the hard-running midfielder prepares to play his 50th AFL match this weekend against the Swans in Canberra, he reflected on the hard work and sheer persistence it took for him to reach that milestone.
Morris was unable to get a game with the Calder Cannons as a youngster, was overlooked in four NAB National Drafts and played four years with Werribee before landing a spot on the Bulldogs' rookie list as a 22-year-old.
He was eventually given his chance at the elite level against Adelaide in round five of 2005 and hasn't looked back, missing just one game through illness since.
"It's very exciting. If you had have told me five years ago that I'd play 50 games for the Doggies I would have said, ‘you're kidding yourself', but to be here and doing it, it's very exciting,” Morris says.
"But it is only 50 games when it comes down to it and beating Sydney is way more important.”
Before suffering a hamstring strain, Ryan Griffen was also due to play his 50th match on Sunday, leading Rodney Eade to ponder aloud the many different paths to AFL success.
"I think what it says to any young footballer out there is that if you don't get drafted in the normal way or you don't make under-18s ... you just never give up,” Eade said.
"Just because you're drafted at [number] one or you're drafted at 100 or you don't get drafted at all, it doesn't mean anything at the AFL level. It's all about your desire, your want and your hard work and all credit to Dale for the way he's stuck at it.”
Morris credits current and former assistant coaches Chris Bond, Leon Cameron and Alan Richardson for his eventual success after they recommended him to the then newly-arrived senior coach.
"When Rocket came to the club he didn't really know much about me and those three put my case forward so I've got them to thank,” Morris said.
"It certainly wasn't easy, but I think that's what makes it even sweeter. I had to work really hard for it and all that hard work's paying off.”
Having landed a rookie-list berth, Morris kept up that hard work and was finally ‘rewarded' by Eade a month into the 2005 season.
"When he told me I was going to play my first game I was scared enough and then he said I'd be playing on Andrew McLeod I thought, ‘oh geez, well, we'll just see what happens', but it turned out to be heaps of fun,” Morris says with a grin.
"Luckily enough for me, I managed to beat him on the night. He's still a wonderful player and it would be good to play on him again and see how things have changed.”
However, Morris' success against the Crows' sublimely-skilled playmaker that night may just have damned him to a tortured existence as the Bulldog most likely to be given the toughest defensive assignment any given week.
"If I match up on those good players and if I can beat them then I know I'm improving,” he said.
"As long as I get a game and I keep the coach happy that's all that matters; if I can make a career out of that I'll be happy.”
But surely it isn't easy being the coach's ‘go-to guy' whenever an opposition superstar needs to be looked after?
"There is a heap of pressure but I love it, I love to be that player that can be relied upon by the coach,” he says.
"To be thrown on to those players and for them to know that I'll do the job or do my very best anyway – whether I beat them or not is another thing – but I'll give anything a go and to be given that opportunity every week is great.”
Morris prides himself on leaving no stone unturned in his pursuit of AFL success.
"I just want to continually improve, not to get complacent and not to think everything's rosy,” he says.
"Whether I'm beating my opponent or not, I'm always looking to improve my game because opposition players are going to be looking at ways to beat me, so I've got to keep looking at ways to get better.
"If I don't, it'll all just catch up with me and that will be it.”
