MICHAEL Barlow fended off Adelaide's Trent Hentschel with his left hand, sending Hentschel sprawling to the ground. He then spun around, cruised in and kicked his first goal at AFL level. 

"I am telling you, this man is unbelievable!" commentator Brian Taylor bellowed about the mature-age Fremantle on-baller.

That was round one, 2010, and until that point few people had said that about Michael Barlow, who features in this round’s edition of the AFL Record.

Barlow grew up in Shepparton in Victoria’s north-east and football coursed through his veins.

His family lived near Notre Dame College, where Barlow spent countless hours on the school oval kicking a football while he completed the first three years of his high school studies.

It was during this time the key moment in his junior football occurred, when an under-15 trial that would lead to a berth in the TAC Cup system loomed.

Now 27 and with 94 AFL games under his belt, Barlow remembers the trial like it was yesterday. He was cut at the first phase. 

"Dad remembers how heart-broken I was," Barlow tells the Record. "He was bleeding for me because he knew how much I loved the sport.  

"Especially when all your mates, the blokes you mingle with, were being acknowledged and going on.

"It was a bit of a kick in the guts … (knowing) you'd just have to keep playing school footy and be content with that."

One player who would go on without Barlow was his close friend Marcus Drum, who was selected by Fremantle with pick No.10 in the 2005 NAB AFL draft. 

Drum would play only 22 games over four seasons before Barlow was eventually picked (in the 2010 rookie draft). He was traded to Geelong in 2009 but never added to his games tally.

Barlow's patience has been rewarded and he is now one of the Dockers' most important players.

"It was a good life lesson, not to throw the baby out with the bath water," Barlow says.

Read the full Michael Barlow feature in the round six edition of the AFL Record, which is available at all grounds.