Craig Bird is not the reason the Sydney Swans have a finals double chance.
Fremantle would have probably finished just where it did, seventh, in 2012, regardless of Matt De Boer's presence.
Nearly every club has a Callinan, Bird, De Boer. A player who happily lives in the shadows of the spotlight soaked up by others, yet one who has well and truly entrenched himself in the best 22 and is loved and admired by those in charge at their clubs in doses equal to that afforded the superstars.
Sometimes, they lack height or bulk. They rarely strut. Their bodies are often banged up. They've nearly always been required to tread an unknown path to get to the top. They have all learnt to ignore dozens of football experts who have either stated, or inferred, that they are not good enough to make it in the big time.
There's a determination about them that is unique, refreshing. In these guys, ability has been forever questioned, but never their resolve.
There's Matty Warnock at Gold Coast, too. A player unexpectedly discarded by his first club, Melbourne, who refused to let others determine his football fate.
Twenty two matches for the Suns later, and Warnock, after taking the
opposition's best attacking big man in each of those games, has earned a new deal.
He was desperate to prove the Demons wrong, and in 2012 he played like a desperate man. When Nathan Bock went down in round six, Warnock was left one-out in the Suns' key defensive posts, and despite having a few bags kicked on him, he stood up in his own way every single week.
Callinan's story is extraordinary. At 17 he had reason to believe he would be drafted to an AFL club. At 28, he played his first AFL game. At 29, he started the 2012 season on the Crows' rookie list.
Now, nearly 30, his little fast-pumping legs and footy-smarts head have allowed him to add 20 games to that tally. He's booted 38 goals for the year (second only at Adelaide behind big gun Taylor Walker) and serves as arguably the AFL's greatest reminder that one should never, ever, give up on a dream.
Callinan has been pursuing his dream his entire life. As a teenager, he left his home state Tasmania to live in a spare room at John Longmire's South Yarra house. Longmire at the time was a budding player agent - Callinan was his first client.
But draft after draft came and went, as Callinan, all 171cm and 70kg of him, toiled in the lower levels of VFL and SANFL, until the Crows secured him in the 2011 rookie draft. At No.64.
Even then, things started badly. A serious arm injury restricted him in early 2011, then a hamstring problem late in the season. He remained a rookie when 2012 began, and no one would have predicted that he could possibly become a crucial component in a team that will this weekend host a double-chance final.
Bird has played a full quota 22 matches this year. Ask anyone at his club, and they will tell you his defensive acts are as important as Josh Kennedy's grunt and Rhyce Shaw's dash.
De Boer has come through the rookie draft to emerge in 2012 as a key player at Freo. He doesn't rack up stats, but coach Ross Lyon loves his hard edge and his six tackles a game. He's a star in his own right, de Boer.
It is no coincidence that once Scott McMahon recovered from a serious allergy that North Melbourne clicked into its exciting surge all the way to the finals.
So much has been glowingly written and said about Shane Tuck this year that he, almost, no longer, can be judged as a lesser light. But his past - told by Richmond last year that he would be cut, couldn't get a game at his famous dad's club - is as compelling a story as any in the AFL.
Then there's Andrew Raines, another son-of-a-great. Just when it looked as though his career was winding down at his second club, the Lions, he backed himself in 2012 to take on the opposition's best midfielder every week. With more than reasonable success.
Everyone in footy loves the big names, but the back stories and toil associated with those who have battled just to get on a club list, let alone become a consistent AFL player, are the ones that truly warm hearts.
You can follow Damian Barrett on Twitter @barrettdamian
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
