Black returned to pre-season training in his hometown of Eaton, Western Australia. Despite the interest of American colleges, he decided then that his heart was with football. "When I got home, I had a couple of emails with scholarship offers. I didn't really think too much of it. I just started playing football and enjoyed that, so that was the end of basketball pretty much. I just played locally after that for fun."
He still has an interest in the sport and keeps a close eye on the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA. "I started following them about three years ago. They just have a young team and I liked the players who they drafted [at the time]. I watch the NBL as well. There's a couple of my mates back home playing state league, and a couple are in America playing college."
Black knocked back an invitation to play in the WAFL colts competition in 2008, instead persevering at a more familiar level where he kicked 10 goals in the final of the Landmark WA Country Championships. He joined Peel Thunder colts for 2009 and overcame early injuries to break into the senior side later in the year. "I only missed one or two games [with a hamstring injury] and then a couple of weeks after that I rolled my ankle and missed another game. It was just one game here or there. From about round eight, I played every one."
However, there has been similar frustration this year for Black, who strained a hamstring in late January and is now in the late stages of his recovery from a groin injury. "We'd just got back from the Gold Coast and it (the hamstring strain) was a week or two after that. I was in rehab then for a month. It was a bit frustrating, but I got back into it and played all the pre-season games for North Ballarat. The first game for the regular season in the VFL I was out again. Hopefully I'll be back playing for North Ballarat next week, whether it's in the ones or the twos, and can just get some game time into my legs."
Selected by North with its third selection in the 2009 NAB AFL Draft (No.25 overall), the key forward admitted the move to Melbourne was daunting for him. But a steady stream of visitors has made the transition easier. "It's different to where I'm from in WA - two hours south of Perth on the coast there. The population there's about 80 or 90,000. The first couple of months I didn't have a car so getting around was a bit hard, and so was learning where to go, but I've figured it all out now. It's a good environment around here and you can't really get bored. There's always something to do."
Black lives with host parent Sue Flaherty in Glenroy, a 20-minute drive from Arden Street. "She takes really good care of me. She's always asking me if I want anything and when I mention stuff, she goes and gets it straight away. I ask if she needs a hand with the dishes and stuff and she says, 'No, no, you sit down'. She's been a member for 13 years or something. She knows all the players."
Sue also provided a home for rookie Ben Speight in 2009. "The first night I flew in here, he had dinner with us. From then, me and Speighty have been pretty good mates [along with] Ben Cunnington and Chucky (Brayden) Norris. We all get along pretty well."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
