Following Sydney Swans forward Tom Papley being in the 2021 AFL All Australian Team for the first time, Peter Blucher writes this profile on the red and white small forward.
Imagine it was November 2015 and you were the Sydney Swans recruiting boss. You desperately need an extra goal-kicker. Someone to play 121 games and kick 187 goals over the next six years.
Confident? Probably not. And understandably so. It would be a task next to impossible to guarantee your miracle man among the 70 untried youngsters who would be picked in the upcoming national draft and 64 less-credentialled hopefuls that would follow in the rookie draft.
So, retrospectively we’ll make it easier. You can also pick from the playing ranks of every opposition club in 2015. Another 700-plus options already identified as AFL quality.
Fast forward six years … how did you go?
Even with the benefit of hindsight it was a monumental task.
Only 39 players have played 121 games in the last six years, and Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and Jake Lloyd were already at the Swans so we’re down to 36.
Next, 127 goals? That’s a big cut. The field is down to five.
You could have gone with Geelong’s Tom Hawkins, Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt, West Coast’s Jack Darling or Hawthorn’s Luke Breust from the established players. Or an over-age kid from the Gippsland Power in the Victorian TAC Cup once described by his coach as “bow-legged, with a long torso and a really funny gait who has bad knees and waddles when he runs”.
Swans recruiting boss Kinnear Beatson, even without the retrospective luxury of picking proven talent six years ago, found his miracle man. Tom Papley.
History says it was one of the great recruiting coups when the Swans snared Papley with selection #14 in the rookie draft.
Set to add to his 121 games and 187 goals in the upcoming finals, Papley has also finished seventh in the Bob Skilton Medal in 2017, fourth in 2019 and third in 2020. In his six years he has topped the Swans goal-kicking twice, finished second to Buddy Franklin three times and ranked fourth in 2018.
And after winning a spot in the 40-man All-Australian squad of 2020 the ever-chirpy 25-year-old, renowned across the competition for his post-goal celebrations, won selection in the 2021 All-Australian team.
Officially crowned the game’s No.1 small forward in a hot field, Papley was the only Swan in the 22 after Lance Franklin, Luke Parker and Callum Mills, also in the 40-man squad, missed the final cut.
He became the 38th Swans player to win an All-Australian blazer and the fifth ex-rookie after Brett Kirk, Kieren Jack, Nick Smith and Dane Rampe.
It was another triumph for Beatson, Swans recruiting boss for 14 years and one of the longest serving recruiters in the League, and a special success for Papley’s devoted if brutally honest TAC Cup coach.
Although evidently not a huge fan of the ace goalsneak’s natural athletic capabilities, Rhett McLennan was always a big supporter of his game.
"How he played for Gippsland is how you see him now playing for Sydney - extremely smart, quick to react, great sideways movement," he says.
"I think the knock from recruiters was if you actually tested him he didn't do very well ... (in the) 20m sprint and 2km time trial … he was middle of the road at best. But get him onto a footy field and you saw the real potential of what he could be as a footballer.”
McLennan, a Gippsland local who had done pre-season training with AFL clubs Brisbane and Carlton before a long and distinguished career as a player and coach in country football, remembers a day pivotal to Papley’s draft aspirations.
It was a VFL game for Casey late in 2015 when he had been called up after a string of good performances for the Power. His opponent was none other that Geelong champion and Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel.
“It was a wet day and Jimmy (Bartel) is one of the best wet weather players of the past 50 years. Tom was going toe-to-toe with him,” McLennan told ESPN at the time of Papley’s 100th game last year.
“Tom did a couple of things where he made Jimmy look a bit silly - a great mark, and he ran around him a couple of times. I think that was when recruiters started to take notice.”
The Swans were among them. “We were really keen on him because we did need a small forward to put pressure on and kick goals,” Beatson explains. “But we only had three picks in the draft and targeted kicking skills.”
They took QBE Sydney Swans Academy product Callum Mills at #3 after a bid from Melbourne. At #51 they chose Tyrone Leonardis from the Northern Knights who didn’t play a game. And at #56 they picked up another gem in emerging star Jordan Dawson from Sturt.
There were three days before the rookie draft and Beatson used the time wisely.
"We had to set up a few things (before the rookie draft), making a few calls as if we were interested in other players - just to put the wind up other clubs so they didn't pick Tom," Beatson says.
"You're always trying to position yourself as best you can ... you're not trying to manipulate the draft, but you're trying to influence it!"
Still, it was an anxious wait. Five players who would never play at AFL level went in the first nine in the rookie draft, plus Josh Wagner, who played 40 games at Melbourne, and three players re-drafted by their own clubs – Brisbane’s Jackson Paine, Collingwood’s Lachie Keeffe and GWS’ Sam Reid.
At #10 Port chose Will Snelling. He played only once for the Power but since has played 32 games with Essendon and will feature in the 2021 finals.
At #11 the Bulldogs chose Brad Lynch, who would play eight games, before Callum Moore went at #12 to Richmond. He played eight games with the Tigers and two at Carlton.
Paul Hunter, who had four years without an AFL game at Adelaide before a belated second chance and four games at St.Kilda this year, was pick #13.
Beatson couldn’t pick Papley quickly enough at pick #14.
Six years on, he ranks second in games from the Class of 2015, equal with Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver, and is the No.1 goal-kicker from Brisbane’s Eric Hipwood (163).
Ironically, the only player from the 2015 draft who has played more games than Papley was chosen eight spots after him at #22 in the rookie draft – Essendon’s Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. He has played 126 games and kicked 153 goals.
Having debuted in Round 1 2016 with Mills and George Hewett before playing in the 2016 grand final in his 20th game, Papley is now on a club-high streak of 69 consecutive games after only once being dropped from the side – in Round 11 2018. He’s missed 12 games with injury and once played in the NEAFL on his return.
He was one of seven draftees from 2015 in the All-Australian squad – and very much the odd one out. The other six were all top 10 picks – Carlton’s Jacob Weitering (#1), Mills, Oliver (#4), Essendon’s Darcy Parish (#5), GWS’ Jacob Hopper (#7) and Carlton Coleman Medallist Harry McKay (#10). Oliver, Parish and McKay the other three draftees from 2015 to make the side.
But it’s never phased Papley being a little different. Just ask McLennan.
FOOTY FACTS
Swans All-Australians
4 Lance Franklin, Adam Goodes, Greg Williams
3 - Barry Hall, Dan Hannebery, Gerard Healy, Paul Kelly, Josh Kennedy, Tony Lockett
2 - David Ackerly, Leo Barry, Craig Bolton, Barry Mitchell, Michael O’Loughlin, Paul Roos
1 – Mark Bayes, Mark Browning, Dennis Carroll, Daryn Cresswell, Bernie Evans, Craig Holden, Kieren Jack, Graeme John, Brett Kirk, Nick Malceski, Jarrad McVeigh, David Murphy, Ryan O’Keefe, Tom Papley, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe, Ted Richards, Ian Roberts, Wayne Schwass, Greg Smith, Nick Smith, Bernard Toohey, Paul Williams.
The Last Six Years
The 39 players to have played 121 games in the AFL over the past six years are Rory Laird (Adel), Jarryd Lyons, Lachie Neale, Dayne Zorko (Bris), Eddie Betts (Carl), Jack Crisp, Steele Sidebottom (Coll), Zac Merrett (Ess), David Mundy (Frem), Joel Selwood, Isaac Smith, Zac Tuohy, Patrick Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins, Mark Blicavs, Luke Dalhaus, Mitch Duncan (Geel), Brandon Ellis (GC), Luke Breust (Haw), Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca (Melb), Todd Goldstein (NM), Travis Boak (Port), Dustin Martin, Dylan Grimes, Jack Riewoldt (Rich), Seb Ross (StK), Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Jake Lloyd, Tom Papley (Syd), Andrew Gaff, Brad Sheppard, Shannon Hurn, Jamie Cripps, Jack Darling (WC), Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter (WB).
The Class of 2015 – Top 10
Games: 126 Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (Ess), 121 Tom Papley (Syd), Clayton Oliver (Melb), 115 Darcy Parish (Ess), Jacob Weitering (Carl), 114 Daniel Rioli (Rich), 111 Tom Phillips (Coll/Haw), 110 Callum Mills (Syd), Eric Hipwood (Bris), 105 Jacob Hopper (GWS).
Goals: 183 Tom Papley (Syd), 163 Eric Hipwood (Bris), 153 Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (Ess), 129 Harry McKay (Carl), 122 Harry Himmelberg (GWS), 99 Jade Gresham (StK), 89 Daniel Rioli (Rich), 79 Charlie Curnow (Carl), 9 Josh Schache (Bris/WB), 56 Jack Silvagni (Carl).
