Ben's not braced any more
December 10, 2006 12:15am
Sunday Mail
AFTER a gruelling rehabilitaion and a few games in local ranks, Crow Ben Hudson is on the verge of his long-awaited return to AFL football. And it could be the most important season of his brief career, as JESPER FJELDSTAD reports
WE'RE at Chirnside Park in Melbourne's western suburbs, a drop punt from the Masonic centre and the nursing home, and Werribee coach Barry Prendergast is scratching his head.
He's watching Ben Hudson – a Queenslander lodging with grandmother Val across the road in Watton St – go through his first paces of training with the VFL club, and he doesn't know what to think.
He's 23, Hudson, and Prendergast doesn't know what to make of him as he watches pre-season training.
"He certainly didn't stand out at training," Prendergast recalled this week. "They'd had big raps on him up in Queensland but I thought to myself, `is there room for this bloke in VFL football?"'
Hudson, should he make it, would be some story. Here was a qualified physiotherapist working in Melbourne, having taken up the game at a senior level while at university in Queensland, and he was trying to convince hard-nosed VFL officials he was up to it.
Initially, it didn't bode well.
"I remember my first game," Hudson said. "And I copped a fair spray. Was told I was pretty ordinary, which was probably fair enough."
So Hudson would amble back to Val's house in Watton St, he and girlfriend Rita both struggle with the cold weather, and carry on trying.
He had links to the area: Uncles Jim and Phil were in a dry cleaning business in the township and his father, Bill, was a fine player in the VFL.
But that year, 2003, seemed to be petering out into oblivion.
Hudson was dispatched to the reserves, seemingly lost to senior Victorian football, until a couple of matches took Prendergast's eye.
"He just thought his way through it," Prendergast, who's now with Melbourne in the AFL, says today. "His second efforts were fantastic, just the way he competed.
"You blend that with a really good character and I thought we had something."
Prendergast was in his first year with the club, but his hunch proved correct.
At the end of the year, Hudson had not only cemented a spot in Werribee's first XVIII, but had finished second in the club best and fairest.
His rise from there was if not meteoric, one that refused to stop.
At the end of the year, Prendergast successfully cajoled him into staying while James Fantasia and his staff – notably brother Tony – asked him to nominate for the national draft.
Taken by Adelaide at No. 58, here are a couple of examples of how significant his rise had been.
Gary Ayres, after his first game: "To think that he could be sitting on a beach near Mt Gravatt in Quensland, sipping pina coladas . . ."
Or, Hudson himself: "I didn't watch it, didn't listen to it. I still don't know if it has sunk in".
FAST forward to now, and Hudson is "it" at West Lakes. And he's it when it comes to ruckmen, with his main support coming from much younger men in Ivan Maric and John Meesen (who now boards with Hudson and Rita as his career takes shape).
He has recovered from a knee reconstruction in late 2005, a casualty of a tackle in a Showdown against Port Adelaide, and turfed the knee brace he wore as he made a tentative return to football with North Adelaide in the SANFL late last year.
More significantly: Matthew Clarke has retired from the club and fellow ruckman Rhett Biglands will miss next year because of knee surgery.
But as Prendergast would have predicted, Hudson was cool and pragmatic when gazing at the responsibility ahead.
He has been busy. Everyday rehabilitation has been blended with gymnastics and work at the Repatriation Hospital; everyday concerns about his future tempered with the knowledge he created a chance out of nowhere.
That's not saying he underestimates the challenge of facing Messrs Cox, Sandilands, Everitt and Lade, but that he remains grateful for the opportunity.
"The last couple of weeks have been good," Hudson said last week.
"Got out of the (enormous) brace, which has been a good start.
"Because you're out so long, it doesn't matter what injury it is: You come back and everyone's focus is how well you recover.
"You try to block it out but getting through the first few games was the challenge more than anything else and the confidence builds from there.
"Towards the end, when the (SANFL) season was over, I was beginning to feel pretty good."
But how does he feel about heading the ruck division without the support of Clarke and Biglands?
"It's put a bit of onus on us," Hudson said. "But I don't know if I'm the No.1 – I'm just the oldest.
"We've just got to stand up and add our part every week. I don't know if we have to be standouts; we just have to contribute."
As for his own game, Hudson is grateful for the plaudits. He is a rare ruckman in his second and third efforts – a rover at ground level – but knows there's much more to fulfilling the role of the modern day ruckman.
"I've been pretty good at second efforts but that's not going to get me through," he said. "I need to be more competitive in the air."
THE thing that completes Hudson's story is not how well he's done from the days of playing while completing his degree in Queensland, but the grace with which he's handled himself.
Prendergast sums it up best: "Because he was a bit older, he didn't seem to have the s...s when he was dropped to the reserves and it stood him in good stead, both at Werribee and at Adelaide."
Hudson's not so sure. He seems to half agree.
"I probably didn't show that I had the s...s," he said. "I wasn't too happy, but I didn't show it because I knew how the system worked.
"I thought I was good to play, it was just a matter of biding my time. I just needed an opportunity.
"What you find is that a lot of the younger players who don't get their chance crack the s...s and let it be known and suffer straight.
"I'd made the move, had found some work and realised I just had to chip away at it."
Knee brace turfed, this is Hudson's time: His time to hold up the ruck hopes not only of a club, but the largest supporter base in the land.
It's a fair ask for somebody who's only played 33 games of senior football. But the thing about Hudson is this: he is just a different story.
Prendergast thinks it's a wonderful story, and it is difficult to disagree.
At 27, he is often referred to as "Young Hudson" in radio and television calls of games, even though contemporaries are considered veterans.
He strolled across from grandmother Val's house in Watton St, without reputation and fanfare, and had a shot at VFL football when most players his age had given up their dreams of an AFL career.
Hudson was already a physiotherapist, had a steady job, and scarcely considered playing at the next level. His fling with the VFL at Werribee was a flirtation with elite football.
This is his hour
December 10, 2006 12:15am
Sunday Mail
AFTER a gruelling rehabilitaion and a few games in local ranks, Crow Ben Hudson is on the verge of his long-awaited return to AFL football. And it could be the most important season of his brief career, as JESPER FJELDSTAD reports
WE'RE at Chirnside Park in Melbourne's western suburbs, a drop punt from the Masonic centre and the nursing home, and Werribee coach Barry Prendergast is scratching his head.
He's watching Ben Hudson – a Queenslander lodging with grandmother Val across the road in Watton St – go through his first paces of training with the VFL club, and he doesn't know what to think.
He's 23, Hudson, and Prendergast doesn't know what to make of him as he watches pre-season training.
"He certainly didn't stand out at training," Prendergast recalled this week. "They'd had big raps on him up in Queensland but I thought to myself, `is there room for this bloke in VFL football?"'
Hudson, should he make it, would be some story. Here was a qualified physiotherapist working in Melbourne, having taken up the game at a senior level while at university in Queensland, and he was trying to convince hard-nosed VFL officials he was up to it.
Initially, it didn't bode well.
"I remember my first game," Hudson said. "And I copped a fair spray. Was told I was pretty ordinary, which was probably fair enough."
So Hudson would amble back to Val's house in Watton St, he and girlfriend Rita both struggle with the cold weather, and carry on trying.
He had links to the area: Uncles Jim and Phil were in a dry cleaning business in the township and his father, Bill, was a fine player in the VFL.
But that year, 2003, seemed to be petering out into oblivion.
Hudson was dispatched to the reserves, seemingly lost to senior Victorian football, until a couple of matches took Prendergast's eye.
"He just thought his way through it," Prendergast, who's now with Melbourne in the AFL, says today. "His second efforts were fantastic, just the way he competed.
"You blend that with a really good character and I thought we had something."
Prendergast was in his first year with the club, but his hunch proved correct.
At the end of the year, Hudson had not only cemented a spot in Werribee's first XVIII, but had finished second in the club best and fairest.
His rise from there was if not meteoric, one that refused to stop.
At the end of the year, Prendergast successfully cajoled him into staying while James Fantasia and his staff – notably brother Tony – asked him to nominate for the national draft.
Taken by Adelaide at No. 58, here are a couple of examples of how significant his rise had been.
Gary Ayres, after his first game: "To think that he could be sitting on a beach near Mt Gravatt in Quensland, sipping pina coladas . . ."
Or, Hudson himself: "I didn't watch it, didn't listen to it. I still don't know if it has sunk in".
FAST forward to now, and Hudson is "it" at West Lakes. And he's it when it comes to ruckmen, with his main support coming from much younger men in Ivan Maric and John Meesen (who now boards with Hudson and Rita as his career takes shape).
He has recovered from a knee reconstruction in late 2005, a casualty of a tackle in a Showdown against Port Adelaide, and turfed the knee brace he wore as he made a tentative return to football with North Adelaide in the SANFL late last year.
More significantly: Matthew Clarke has retired from the club and fellow ruckman Rhett Biglands will miss next year because of knee surgery.
But as Prendergast would have predicted, Hudson was cool and pragmatic when gazing at the responsibility ahead.
He has been busy. Everyday rehabilitation has been blended with gymnastics and work at the Repatriation Hospital; everyday concerns about his future tempered with the knowledge he created a chance out of nowhere.
That's not saying he underestimates the challenge of facing Messrs Cox, Sandilands, Everitt and Lade, but that he remains grateful for the opportunity.
"The last couple of weeks have been good," Hudson said last week.
"Got out of the (enormous) brace, which has been a good start.
"Because you're out so long, it doesn't matter what injury it is: You come back and everyone's focus is how well you recover.
"You try to block it out but getting through the first few games was the challenge more than anything else and the confidence builds from there.
"Towards the end, when the (SANFL) season was over, I was beginning to feel pretty good."
But how does he feel about heading the ruck division without the support of Clarke and Biglands?
"It's put a bit of onus on us," Hudson said. "But I don't know if I'm the No.1 – I'm just the oldest.
"We've just got to stand up and add our part every week. I don't know if we have to be standouts; we just have to contribute."
As for his own game, Hudson is grateful for the plaudits. He is a rare ruckman in his second and third efforts – a rover at ground level – but knows there's much more to fulfilling the role of the modern day ruckman.
"I've been pretty good at second efforts but that's not going to get me through," he said. "I need to be more competitive in the air."
THE thing that completes Hudson's story is not how well he's done from the days of playing while completing his degree in Queensland, but the grace with which he's handled himself.
Prendergast sums it up best: "Because he was a bit older, he didn't seem to have the s...s when he was dropped to the reserves and it stood him in good stead, both at Werribee and at Adelaide."
Hudson's not so sure. He seems to half agree.
"I probably didn't show that I had the s...s," he said. "I wasn't too happy, but I didn't show it because I knew how the system worked.
"I thought I was good to play, it was just a matter of biding my time. I just needed an opportunity.
"What you find is that a lot of the younger players who don't get their chance crack the s...s and let it be known and suffer straight.
"I'd made the move, had found some work and realised I just had to chip away at it."
Knee brace turfed, this is Hudson's time: His time to hold up the ruck hopes not only of a club, but the largest supporter base in the land.
It's a fair ask for somebody who's only played 33 games of senior football. But the thing about Hudson is this: he is just a different story.
Prendergast thinks it's a wonderful story, and it is difficult to disagree.
At 27, he is often referred to as "Young Hudson" in radio and television calls of games, even though contemporaries are considered veterans.
He strolled across from grandmother Val's house in Watton St, without reputation and fanfare, and had a shot at VFL football when most players his age had given up their dreams of an AFL career.
Hudson was already a physiotherapist, had a steady job, and scarcely considered playing at the next level. His fling with the VFL at Werribee was a flirtation with elite football.
This is his hour
