Gallman, 20, was promoted to the Crows’ senior list at the end of season 2007, having started his career as a rookie, and was deemed so promising he received former club legend and current-day defensive coach Ben Hart’s number 34 guernsey.
But soon after reaching the heights of the primary list, Gallman’s rollercoaster AFL ride saw him plummet back into uncertainty.
The North Adelaide junior was diagnosed with an infected foot during the pre-season after his entire leg mysteriously swelled up, and his bad luck carried into the season-proper.
A series of knee injuries limited him to just nine league games with the Roosters and put his future at AFL level in jeopardy.
“I wanted to be out there training on the track and performing for the coaches, but I was on the sidelines recovering from injury,” Gallman said.
“I got back from the infected foot, did a knee, came back and then did the other knee, so I was sort of only getting through half a game. It was really frustrating because one instant you’re fine, but in the next, you’re not.
“They were all collision-type injuries, which you can’t prevent. You can learn how to fall, but when someone falls on you there’s not much you can do about it.”
During the rehabilitation for his third knee injury Gallman started to feel insecure about his place in the squad for 2009 and put an action plan into place.
“I had quite a few talks with [development manager] Alan Stewart just about where I was at in regards to my season and the list management and he challenged me a few times,” Gallman said.
“He sort of put it to me pretty bluntly what I had to do and I set a few goals for myself, to get back into the league side and play good football at North Adelaide and also to work on a few things the club asked me to do.
“The coaches were happy with how I was playing, but they wanted me, rather than just playing a solid game and beating my opponent, to start getting the ball and getting into the best players and that was something I started to do, especially in the last half a dozen games.
“I went into the off-season unsure of what was happening, but I was happy that in the last month or two, I had put as much into staying on the list as I could.
“Fortunately, a couple of things went my way and the club decided to keep me.”
Gallman, who finished second behind fitness freak Nathan van Berlo in the club’s first 3km time trial of the summer, has been instructed to be ‘more selfish’ in his play and to use his incredible aerobic capacity to advantage.
He’s hopeful that adding this new dimension to his game will help him secure one of the two spots left vacant by former defensive duo Nathan Bassett and Kris Massie.
“It’s been a tough defence to crack into for the last few years because they’ve all been such amazing players, but now seeing those spots I’ve definitely said, ‘It’s my time to have a crack at it’,” Gallman said.
“I’m not going to hold anything back in regards to that. It’s pre-Christmas at the moment and there’s a long way to go, but at the end of it in terms of the goals I’ve set, there’s a trial game in Darwin to aim for and then round one of the NAB Cup is against Geelong, so you’re putting yourself against the best.
“That’s the long-term aim and hopefully all the goals I’ve set for the short-term are going to get me there.”
