“I have only been playing for three years but I love the game,” Parson told collingwoodfc.com.au at the Lexus Centre on Tuesday.
Parson is one of seven players to have signed with Collingwood through the AFL NSW scholarship program.
Collingwood head scout Noel Judkins and national recruiting manager Derek Hine first laid eyes on Parson earlier this year in the VLine under-15 carnival.
“We first identified Josh at Casey Fields and watched him play the next two games of the carnival. By Josh’s final game, were ready to put pen to paper,” Judkins said.
The objective of the scholarship program, created by the AFL in 2005, is to develop and promote AFL in the NSW region. The idea is to identify those players who have the potential to make it into the AFL, sign them to a three year contract to an AFL club, and with the help of the club develop their game until they are ready for the AFL.
The biggest success story to come out of the AFL scholarship program is Craig Bird who debuted for Sydney back in round one of this year. Bird signed up to Sydney through the program in 2005 and has quickly developed into an AFL player racking up 18 games in 2008.
There are over 65 players across the 16 AFL clubs who have signed up to the scholarship program. Rod Carter (293 games for Fitzroy and Sydney), is employed by Collingwood as the eyes and ears in NSW.
Scott Reed was the first scholarship player signed by the Magpies back in 2005. He has quickly developed as a 192cm midfielder/half-back .
“We have six boys on our scholarship list. Scott will be the first player that will come onto either the primary or rookie list. He will commence with the VFL and hopefully play senior footy in the near future,” added Judkins.
Parson grew up playing soccer and only heard of footy through his dad and brothers.
“One day my family and I were out at Bilo and we saw a sign on the fence, ‘Sign up for footy training’. The next day my family drove me down and I had a kick of the ball for the first time in my life.
“I remember the first game I played. We were out at Singleton and it took about two hours to get there. I thought if I had to do that every week I would give the game up pretty quickly,” Parson remarked.
“In my first game I had no idea. I was really tall and my coach said you are playing as a ruckman and he said that’s in the middle, so I stayed there the whole game.”
Parson didn’t know much about Collingwood until his friend from Melbourne introduced him to the team.
“My mate, who used to live in Melbourne, had me over one night before a Collingwood game. His dad took me aside before dinner and said, ‘All right mate, you now go for Collingwood and if you don’t. You are sleeping out in the gutter.’
“I just started laughing at him because I thought he wasn’t being serious. But he was.”
After Parson played his third game in the under-15 V Line carnival where he was approached by Hine.
“Derek Hine was sitting there and I thought he was a mate’s dad. He said, ‘Hi I am Derek Hine from Collingwood’. He told me they were looking at me. I signed up with the club soon after that.”
Judkins went on to explain how Collingwood develops the players once they have committed to the program.
“We have Richo (Alan Richardson the development manager) working with the boys when they come down to Melbourne a few times a year,” Judkins said.
“Hopefully, we will have Josh work with Justin Blumfield (146 games with Essendon including the 2000 premiership) who has worked with Scotty Reed over in Newcastle. Josh will also train with the under-16 NSW Rams in Sydney once a week.”
Hine added: “Given Josh’s limited time in the game he has developed rapidly.
“He is very well balanced with good pace and is very competent on both sides of his body, having competed at a national level in both high jump and javelin he is a natural athlete who has real strength and power which he brings to his AFL game, as with Adrian (Yakimov) we see Josh developing as an inside midfielder.
“Josh’s signing balances us up quite well we now have a variety of potential rucks, key position and midfield players signed to the program."
Parson still has a long way to go to make a career of playing footy but he already has a little of the flair needed to play senior football. “My Nan is going to give me 100 bucks to get a haircut. But I think the next step is to have a bit of Dale Thomas, you know, keep the dreadlocks,” Parson joked.
