Basketball was my number one sport until I was about 15-years-old.

I played footy when I was really young, but then had a big break and didn’t start playing again until my mid-teens. In between, it was all basketball. I played two or three games and trained another two or three times a week. I was pretty into it!

Remarkably, I played basketball with or against a number of guys, who are actually playing in the AFL now. We came through the system together and played at the same junior clubs.

I started playing basketball for the Blackburn Vikings, where I played with Andy Otten. His Dad, Theo, actually coached us in Under-8s. ‘Otto’ was a really good player. I think he even played basketball for a state team along the way.

We played a lot of basketball together along the way. I played with Andy’s brother, Max, too. We got to know each other and each other’s families’ pretty well, which came in handy when Otto and I were both drafted to the Crows within a year or two of each other.

When I was older, I switched clubs to play for the Nunawading Spectres, whilst also playing a lot of school basketball at Trinity College.

I’d played basketball against Port Adelaide star Robbie Gray in Under-12s, but when I moved clubs we were teammates in Under-14s and Under-16s. Robbie was an absolute gun basketballer and I think that translated into his footy.

You can see in the way he plays footy, his hand-eye coordination, agility and ball handling is exceptional and I think a lot of that is from his basketball days.

I also played against Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury in a few different tournaments when I was young. He was a jet!

If Scott didn’t pursue footy, I think he would’ve gone on to pretty big things in basketball. He was part of the AIS squad. There’s the story of how Patty Mills only got a call up to the AIS when Scott quit to play football.

Scott was by far and away the best player in our age group in Victoria and, probably, in the country. His shooting was unbelievable. I played against him quite a few times and he always towelled us up!

I loved basketball, but as I got older I realised it was going to be difficult to pursue it as a pathway.

Unless you were really tall, super athletic or very good (which I wasn’t!) the opportunities to make a living out of it were limited. I started playing footy again and fell back in love with it. I didn’t look back from there.

I think there are a lot of attributes from basketball that translate on the footy field, like ball handling and awareness of what’s around you.

Because basketball is a non-contact sport, you have to work out the best ways to get around people and through traffic. I think you can see with the guys who were really good basketballers, like Robbie and Scott, they’ve just got that ability to find space and weave through traffic. They’ve got clean hands as well.

Personally, I always felt that basketball helped my ball handling when I switched back to footy again.

If we made a basketball team at the Adelaide Football Club, I think we’d actually have a pretty good side! We’ve got Jack Osborn, who played US College basketball. Josh Jenkins was part of a NBL development squad in Townsville and Ricky Henderson was a star in Victoria as well. Brodie Martin could also play a bit, so I don’t think I’d get a look in!

It’s not unusual for professional athletes to be good at more than one sport.

Our old teammate Bernie Vince is one who is good at all sports. Of the current playing group, I’d probably say Jarryd Lyons is the best all-round sportsperson. ‘JL’ is a really good golfer and was a great junior cricketer as well. He’s one of those guys who just seems to be good at everything he tries.

James Podsiadly and Rory Sloane are quite good tennis players and have a hit together occasionally. I think Richard Douglas is pretty handy on the tennis court as well. ‘Dougy’ talks a pretty big game anyway, so it would be interesting to see how he went against Sloaney and ‘Pods’.

Jake Lever has a boxing background. We haven’t done too much sparring, but a few of the boys have seen him box and aren’t very keen to get in the ring with him! He’s a bit of a crazy man. He’s super quick and really aggressive.

Charlie Cameron is another sporting all-rounder. He’s got some good dance moves too! Charlie played rugby and also baseball growing up and didn’t start playing football seriously until a few years ago. We wore our junior club footy jumpers at training the other day and Charlie was actually going to wear a rugby jersey because he didn’t play junior footy. A few of the boys said he should’ve just worn a baseball top or glove because that was his sport as a kid.

In terms of a pure athlete, there aren’t many who can compete with Patrick Dangerfield for strength, speed and power. He lets everyone know about it too! We all watched ‘Danger’ competing in the Iron Man Challenge in the offseason. He made sure we were tuned in at two o’clock on a Sunday afternoon to watch him. He loves that sort of stuff and probably could’ve been a handy sprinter if he’d stuck with it. Fortunately for us, he chose footy because he’s not bad at that either!