At the National Draft Camp, Tenace, who lives and attended school in Shepparton, placed in the top 10 per cent for the 20 metre sprint. He is expected to be drafted within the top ten picks of next Saturday’s National AFL Draft.
Tenace will speak to afl.com.au four times between now and then. Happy to have completed VCE, he shares his latest thoughts with Samantha Lane.
Friday, 14 November 2003:
I had my last year 12 exam on Tuesday, in Legal Studies, and it’s a big relief that it’s all over. It was pretty hard during exams. I had six, including two maths ones. I’ve been pretty much relaxing since then, just getting my mind off school stuff. I think I did pretty well, but I suppose you can never tell.
In a way though, the exams were good because they kept my mind away from what was going on and you can just knuckle down on your school work and get your mind off the footy stuff. It’s hard sometimes, because people just want to talk about footy, but it did help me focus on my study.
There were no other guys at my high school – Shepparton High – who were at the draft camp, but from some of the other local schools there were a couple. My mate (and teammate at the Murray Bushrangers) Ryley Dunn is one of them. There were probably three or four of us and we get on really well. For most of my exams Ryley was in the same room, so that was good. We catch up a fair bit.
Looking back, the National draft camp was pretty hectic. We had our grand final for the Bushrangers early in the week and we pretty much left for Canberra straight after that.
But it was so good to gauge what the other guys are like, and you get to know a lot of them a lot better. It’s competitive when it comes to the testing, but after all that’s done we just chatted. It’s a tad intimidating, especially the first couple of interviews you have with the clubs. After that they’re basically the same, and you get asked the same sort of questions.
There were a few coaches there, Mark Williams from Port Adelaide and a couple of others. From what I could see, they were all extremely good and all very professional and they don’t give you a hard time or anything. They’re pretty friendly.
The clubs aren’t allowed to talk to us during our VCE exams though, and I haven’t talked to anyone pretty much since the draft camp.
I’ve pretty much got no idea where I’ll be drafted. I’ve barracked for Collingwood all my life but there’s no doubt I’ll be happy to go anywhere.
