Rolling waves and a new football challenge have lured former Melbourne and West Coast midfielder Phil Read to Geelong.
Read, a keen surfer, signed with Geelong's VFL team this week after he was delisted by the Demons at the end of last season.
The 27-year-old, who was best on ground for Melbourne's affiliate club Sandringham in last year's VFL grand final win over Geelong, has started training with the Cats, but will miss up to 12 matches during this season due to suspension and work commitments.
Read was rubbed out for four weeks for striking Geelong's Mathew Stokes in the VFL grand final and will also travel overseas mid-year for an eight-week work commitment.
But the Cats were still desperate to entice the hard-running rover to the club to add much-needed experience to their young VFL list.
”He is just about the perfect player for our VFL system,'' coach Leigh Tudor said.
”We have got a lot of younger on our AFL list, so we need a couple of players like James Byrne and Phil Read who have played a little bit of footy and can handle the knocks and lead the way with the strength stuff.
”We got hold of him through Cameron Ling. They have got some mutual surf buddies and at the end of the year when Phil was delisted from Melbourne we thought we should give him a ring.
”It just worked out from there that our system was what he was looking for so we're really excited to get him.''
Read said he had been undecided whether he would play this season due to his overseas work placement.
”But I spoke to Leigh Tudor and he convinced me that any involvement in the club would be awesome for them,'' Read said.
”I just love Geelong and love Torquay and have mates that live down there, so it all kind of fit in for me.
”They have such a good young squad down there so hopefully guys like James Byrne and I can help them out a fair bit around the packs and give them some confidence.''
Read said he had walked away from AFL football very proud of what he had achieved both with the Eagles and the Demons.
”The AFL journey has given me a huge head start in life,'' he said. ``I really enjoyed my first three years at West Coast where I stepped straight into the side and played every game for three years with the Wooshas (John Worsfold) and Blueys (Guy McKenna) and all those great players. That was probably the highlight of my career.''
But after he was overlooked by Melbourne's selectors following six best on grounds in a row for Sandringham last season, he knew that his journey was coming to an end.
“Melbourne was always very supportive of me and they decided to go with their young kids who really stepped up last year and that sits fine with me.''
The Cats will play the Northern Bullants in a six-quarter match starting at 9.45am on Saturday as a curtain raiser to the AFL practice match between Geelong and Melbourne.
