INDIGENE - PART FIVE

[Demonland 73,140]

INDIGENE - PART FIVE by Whispering Jack

Anthony "Andy" Lovell was a 17-year-old prodigy from Glenorchy when drafted by Melbourne at 42 in the 1986 national draft, the first of the current series of drafts, making him the first Indigenous Australian to be drafted.

A 180cm, 82kg ruck-rover, Lovell was also a woodchopper whose father Greg had been world champion, hence the nickname "Chopper". He was still a schoolboy when he crossed Bass Strait to join the Demons in 1988. He attended Melbourne High School and was a member of the first XVIII alongside fellow Demons of the future in Stephen Tingay and John Ahern. Matthew Knights and Stephen Ryan were also teammates in the school team who also later played in the VFL/AFL.

Lovell made his debut in the third round of 1988 against Geelong at home, quickly establishing himself at the club and becoming a member of the Demons' losing Grand Final team that year. A tenacious footballer, he was runner up in the club best and fairest in 1992. At his best near the goals, Lovell kicked eight goals on the MCG against Richmond in 1993 game that his side won by a record 121 points.

Surprisingly, after eight seasons that yielded 121 games and 146 goals, the 25 year old Lovell transferred to West Coast where he spent three seasons (43 games) before retiring not long after the tragic death of his father.

"Chopper" Lovell was well loved by Demon fans and was briefly reunited with the club when he became coach of its then VFL aligned partner, the Sandringham Zebras. He is now an assistant coach at Brisbane.

Phil Egan joined Melbourne at the beginning of 1991 after a nine-year 125 game career with the Tigers. He was 28 years old when he made a rather inauspicious debut for Melbourne (his only game) in a 79 point thrashing at the hands of the Eagles in the opening round of 1991. The Demons managed only two goals that day and Egan bowed out of senior AFL football when the team for the following game was announced. Proud of his heritage, he has been an opponent of the view held by many historians that Thomas Wills devised the rules of the game from rugby:

"To me there's no coincidence at all and the link is clear." Egan believes that the "so called inventors of the game ... would have been looking at the Indigenous people, where we're sitting today."

Coincidentally, another Aboriginal footballer also made his debut with Melbourne that year who represented the club once but 17-year-old Fabian Francis was at the beginning of his career and not the end when he made his only appearance on 13th July, 1991 against Fitzroy.

The Darwin born Francis grew up playing both rugby league and Australian football. He was drafted from Northern Territory Football League team Southern Districts at number 63 in the 1990 national draft but the clever young wingman did not enjoy living in Melbourne and after one season returned to Darwin to play rugby league. He was playing for the Port Adelaide Magpies when recruited by Robert Walls to the Brisbane Bears where he notched up 22 games before returning to the SANFL. He was then included on Port Adelaide's inaugural AFL squad in 1997 after a strong season in the SANFL and played 86 games for the Power. His chances of playing for a fourth club in Fremantle were snuffed out in 2002 when the AFL ruled the Dockers out of the pre season draft for salary cap reasons.

Local product Sean Charles from Powelltown, played his first senior game for Melbourne on the MCG against North Melbourne just five days after his 17th birthday wearing the number 44. He produced one of the finest debuts ever by a Demon recruit kicking five goals in a brilliant 19 disposal display on a wing and half forward against the Kangaroos.

Having watched him play as a junior when he was a virtual one man team for Carnegie and being aware of his speed, his skills and his fitness, I was one of the few who was not surprised at his performance or the fact that St. Kilda had once tried to spirit him away in one of their junior squads. Charles was resident in one of Melbourne's zones in the last days of zoning and the Demons claimed him and David Neitz just before the supposedly "uncompromised" draft took over.

He should have been an all time great for the club but the 175cm tall Charles managed only 47 games (60 goals) in an injury-riddled six-year career at the Demons before being traded to Carlton where he broke a leg in his first and only game. Ironically, his days as an AFL footballer ended at St. Kilda where he played eight games in 2000.

To me, Sean Charles represented the free-spirited meaning of marngrook. As a smiling faced youngster who played the game in juniors against my son, he epitomised the enjoyment of sport. He had speed and he had endurance (I once saw him burn off many older and more experienced runners in a local fun run) and his ball-handling skills were exquisite. I have little doubt that if he played the game today, he would come to be counted among the greats - on the same level even as perhaps an Andrew McLeod.

Yet, like "Lelly" Bamblett a decade before him, the prodigiously talented Charles did not get to play 50 games for the club and for that, the club must take part of the blame.

After nine games in his opening season, Charles broke a scaphoid bone in his wrist early in a pre season cup game at VFL Park against the Eagles. I'm not certain whether he was misdiagnosed but he returned to the ground after the initial injury, an unnecessary and poor move in an insignificant match because Charles didn't play another game in 1993.

For the next few seasons, the wrist injury dogged him. It became infected on one of his trips to the country swimming in a river. Perhaps, Sean could have done with better guidance or a mentor to help him through this period or maybe the lure of bush was too much for the instinctive and uncomplicated youngster? Whatever the case, he could never replicate the magic of his debut game. His career had peaked before his 18th birthday.

Charles recovered briefly to show glimpses of his true ability in the 1994 finals (now wearing the number 18) when the Demons made a late run for glory but he was restricted to two and three games respectively in 1995 and 1996. The switch to guernsey number 1 had done him no good at all.

His fortunes looked to be on the rise when the stronger bodied Charles opened the 1997 season with three goals in his team's upset victory over reigning premier North Melbourne but he was soon back on the injured list. He came back to play a total of 18 games in his final season, one in which the Demons won the wooden spoon and suffered badly under a period of dislocation when Neil Balme was sacked as coach and there was significant upheaval at administrative and board level.

By then however, Sean Charles had lost his zest and his pace, and more importantly, it appeared that he had lost his capacity to enjoy the game and to play it with the same freedom of spirit that was introduced to the MCG on that magical day in May 1992 when he announced his arrival to the Demon faithful.

These days, Indigenous players are better equipped to look after themselves and AFL clubs are better able to understand and then to respect the societal factors that drive them and make them such important contributors to our game. If only that was so in the early part of the 1990's!

TO BE CONTINUED

This series is written in honour of the late Matthew Wonaeamirri, father of current Melbourne player Austin. Our hearts go out to all of the family.