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PART 3

Wednesday, July 2, 2014 – ALL OF a sudden, Paddy McCartin is being talked about as a possible No. 1 draft pick. Since the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships started in May, interest in the draft has spiked. And McCartin has been at the front of it.

His face has been on websites and in newspapers, and he's been interviewed on radio and television. No cut-outs or clippings are around his house or on the double-door fridge, but whenever his name is mentioned his mates text him about it, or take a photo and send it through.

His carnival ended today – with Vic Country losing to Western Australia by two points at Etihad Stadium – but McCartin had already noticed the change in how people were talking about him.

McCartin (right) scoops up the ball for Vic Country against WA in the 2014 NAB AFL Under-18 Championships. Picture: AFL Media



For years McCartin has followed the draft and watched players anointed as the No.1 pick during the year, and wondered how they'd handle the attention. He remembers seeing it happen with Bryce Gibbs and Marc Murphy, and then David Swallow. Now he is being asked the same questions they were.

'No.1? Whatever happens, happens'

Last week he dropped by his local club, St Joseph's in Geelong, and felt a slight shift, not in how people saw him, but how they talked to him, and what they spoke about. He understands being a key forward attracts wider interest, but at stages he has felt he needs to perform at a higher level because of it.

"Sometimes you think you have to do better because of that stuff, and that's what it was like when it first started happening. I've moved on from that a bit," McCartin says.

"If someone had told me this time last year, or even before that, that some people would think I'd be the No.1 pick I'd have laughed at them," he says.

"It'll be up to someone else. I've just got to make sure I'm having a crack and making the most of the year and then the decision will be left to someone else. It won't be in my hands.



"It's a bit different, compared to previous years with Tom Boyd, Jon Patton and Lachie Whitfield. They were locked in as the No.1 pick. This year there are a few boys who are hovering around the mark, but whatever happens, happens.

"I just want to enjoy the year, but that can be tough at times."

Nobody's bullet-proof

Injuries make that uncertainty even harder. McCartin kicked the first goal of the championships, when a ball was chipped his way in round one against Vic Metro. He played well that day, and was pleased with how he combined with fellow tall Hugh Goddard.

Click here to check out Hugh Goddard's draft profile

He walked off the ground with three goals to his name and happy, but not knowing he had suffered an injury that would disrupt his campaign.

Thinking he had a corked thigh, McCartin played the following week with Geelong Grammar, his school for the past three years since he accepted a scholarship.

McCartin kicked four goals in a loss to Melbourne Grammar, but pulled up tight a few days afterwards when at Falcons training. The club did a few tests and found he had strained a hip muscle connecting to his quad. Justin Edwards, the club physio, played it straight. "This will put a dint in your championships," he told McCartin.

"I was pretty flat. It comes back on to me because I easily could have had it checked out the week before," McCartin says.

"I might not have played against Melbourne and might have been fine for the rest of the champs.

"You can't try to be a hero and play through everything. Nobody's bullet-proof, as much as you sometimes feel you are at this age.

"When something happens you have to check it out. It turned into three weeks out. I was pretty upset."

He missed Vic Country's loss to South Australia in round two, and sat out as it beat Vic Metro again, and then Western Australia at Fremantle.

He got in one school game – a five-goal haul against Xavier – before returning to the national stage for Country's game against South Australia at Simonds Stadium.

Watch Paddy McCartin's highlights from the 2014 NAB AFL Under-18 Championships

Rising stocks

McCartin's year has been hampered by injuries, but they haven't hurt his draft position. Midway through the championships, as other prospects struggled, his stocks even seemed to rise, despite him not playing.

St Kilda and the Brisbane Lions are at the bottom of the ladder and the Western Bulldogs and Carlton are not far away. All are searching for a young key forward, so McCartin knows he will be on an AFL list next year.

"You don't want to think about it because you don't want to seem like a flog, but it's something I have to start thinking about," he says of joining an AFL club.

"I've got to wrap my head around it. I'm at home, going to school, and in six months I'll be out living somewhere else, and could be in another state for all I know. It's come pretty quickly.

"Unless Geelong takes me, I'm moving out of home. And it's not like it changes slowly over time, it just comes on you and then you'll be gone," he says.

His family has also come to grips with it. Only weeks ago did it hit Jo her son would probably be drafted. And Matt, who played with Geelong's reserves in the 1990s and retired in 2006 as a 34-year-old at local level, has thought about how he'd be if he saw his son play an AFL game: a mess.

Jo has taught her son how to cook a few dishes – lasagna and pasta Bolognese – in planning for moving out, but nothing really can prepare him.

When recruiters have asked how he'd handle living away from his family or going interstate, he's answered honestly.

"I always say I don't know, because I've never done it. As I was growing up, it was something I did struggle with, leaving home and going away from my family because they're such a great support and I really love them," he says.

"I don't know how I'd deal with it because I've never done it. I could lie, but that's not going to get you anywhere, because if you say to them that you'll be fine and you're not, you get yourself in a bit of a predicament.

"If I'm saying to them it's going to be fine, they might think 'Really good', but if I get in there and two years down the track I'm thinking I want to go ... it's not just me who's bullshitting, they've taken the risk and it's backfired on them as well.

"As soon as they ask that question it's really important to be straight up."

'I've had enough of watching'

Recently, McCartin made a decision to stop injecting insulin five or six times a day. He now has a small pump that sits in his back pocket and clips onto his buttock to drip-feed him insulin. He uses it during the warm-up for a game, but not during a match.

After a meal he plugs in how many carbohydrates he's eaten and what his blood sugar levels are, and at that point the pump does the rest automatically, only needing a change of needle once every three days.

That's stopped recruiters asking about his 'little red bag', which he used to grab every time he left the field to check his levels. He still monitors his sugar during games, but with less worry.

Clubs will get more information on his diabetes soon. The AFL Academy's physiotherapist, Nick Ames, will consult with McCartin's local doctor and diabetes specialist to provide a full-scale report on it for AFL club doctors, who can then talk to their recruiters about whether there is anything to investigate further.

Clubs with early picks want to see McCartin dominate four or five games in a row, to give them more certainty about picking him, and make their minds clearer.

Others think McCartin could already settle into some AFL forward lines, such is his strength, ability to impact and skills near goal. He simply wants to play the rest of the season – probably six games with the possibility of TAC Cup finals – and play well.

"I've had enough of watching," he says.

Read part 1 – The diagnosis that almost cost Paddy McCartin a crack at the big time

Part 2 – 'What just happened?'

NEXT – In the hot seat

Twitter: @AFL_CalTwomey