Despite having prepared for the moment for months, seeing Tom Scully in an orange and charcoal polo shirt stung every Melbourne fan somewhere that footy had never ventured to.
Every #1 draft pick in the AFL has a story, many of which replicate each other actually: Brendon Goddard, Marc Murphy and Luke Hodge took years to match expectations, while David Swallow, Nick Riewoldt and Matt Kreuzer shone from the start. Some, like Adam Cooney and Des Headland, were hampered by injuries and a few just never lived up to it, namely, Alex McDonald, Josh Fraser, Travis Johnstone and Brett Deledio. Finally, there are the players who’s clubs still wait patiently for their potential to transition into good, consistent, football: One is Bryce Gibbs, another is Jack Watts and, up until a few hours ago, the final one was Tom Scully. Despite having been at the Melbourne Football Club for just 22 months, it feels like for a lot longer that the former Dandenong Stingray captain had donned the red and blue. His story has been one of excitement, expectation, agony and, ultimately, disappointment; so where better to start the story than on a sunny night in Melbourne two years ago.
The season had been over for Melbourne for a number of months, but still the anger at the club’s sketchy tactics towards the end of the season rang strong around the football world. After months of speculation about Melbourne’s possible National Draft pick one and two combination should they finish with fewer than 4.5 wins, it was the Demon’s spectacular after-the-siren loss to the lowly Richmond Tigers that got the skeptics going. The Dees got on with it however, and after an emotional goodbye to club favorites Russell Robertson, Matthew Whelan and Paul Wheatley, every Melbourne fan marked down the 26th of November on their calendars – the day which promised the future.
When the big day swung around, Melbourne looked in a pretty good position. Along with selections #1 and #2, they had managed to snare pick #11 from Carlton for hard-nosed midfielder Brock McLean: This left them with selections numbers 1, 2, 11, 18, 34 and 50. They had succeeded in nabbing the two top picks, but one thing that had changed was late-blooming Sturt young midfielder Jack Trengove slipping into favoritism in front of Butcher for pick #2 favoritism. Melbourne stuck true to the speculation, as the AFL’s new, tacky, draft countdown ended in the name’s ‘Trengove’ and ‘Scully’. Jordan Gysberts was then selected at 11 and Luke Tapscott at 18; the Dees recruits postulating over his last name to give Luke Ball a complimentary scare. This was clearly a new, confident Melbourne.
Even though there was barely a smile when he received the red yoked guernsey, Melbourne fans were assured to not be concerned. After all, Tom was focused on his AFL career without any distractions, and even Chris Judd had barely cracked a grin when the West Coast had won the flag in 2006. Still, the unease grew as the youngsters around him grinned as he remained stony faced…perhaps a sign of things to come.
Scully’s expression was soon forgotten after he completed a pre-season with the club that, by all accounts, had been stunning. He carried that form into the 2010 season, even scoring 39 possessions in a memorable game vs. the Western Bulldogs. Scully, for family reasons, withdrew from Melbourne’s October trip to Shanghai early, before a knee injury ruled him out of pre-season 2011. All before the approach of the Giant shadow.
It was February 2011 when various media outlets printed rumors that Scully had signed a ‘handshake agreement’ with the AFL’s newest franchise – the Greater Western Sydney Giants. After the Gold Coast had successfully recruited Cats superstar Gary Ablett, GWS, led by recruiting manager Graham ‘Gubby’ Allen, were looking for a big name themselves. With Eddie McGuire getting busy ensuring the futures of his star-studded list at Collingwood, and young North Melbourne midfielder Andrew Swallow commendably knocking back big bucks from GWS – Allen turned his interests to Tom Scully, the beginning of the feather-rustling approach which GWS have employed so successfully. The Demon hierarchy, obviously concerned about the future of their young star, held a press-conference with Scully in March with the youngster claiming that he hadn’t heard from GWS and that his future lay at Melbourne.
"I love the club, I love all my teammates and I just want to be a part of the future at the (Melbourne) footy club."
While this reassured most Melbourne supporters, others (such as yours truly) were still concerned. Why wouldn’t he put the speculation at rest and sign a new deal…why wouldn’t he smile?
Scully made his long-awaited return to the Melbourne side in round 11 vs. Essendon, and despite his time out, he still showed signs of his ability and was a big part of what may have been Melbourne’s highest point of the year – winning under the Friday Night Lights at the MCG against the high-flying Bombers. Despite his reassurances in May to battling Melbourne President Jim Stynes that he was staying, Scully’s situation seemed to be deteriorating.
His football suffered greatly as his management team invited GWS to make an offer, culminating in many new rumours, including the information that Scully hadn’t bothered singing the song with his teammates in Port Adelaide after once again blowing his troublesome knee mid game . After a shocking Round 23 game against Gold Coast, it was announced prior to the Port Adelaide game that Scully had pulled out late due to injury. It’s blindingly obvious in hindsight why Scully wouldn’t have put his body on the line for the Demons in that game, and the Dees went on to lose – finishing off a terrible 2011 season in 13th.
The minute the year ended, the Demons ‘politely pushed’ Scully towards making a decision. As Callan Ward, Phil David and Rhys Palmer signed for GWS in the first week of finals, Scully was rumoured to have flown up to Blacktown to see the facilities, something Giants CEO Dale Holmes denied. It seemed Scully may indeed have been putting off negotiations, despite a $5million 5 year deal offered by GWS. Friday came with no announcement, but Sunday morning arrived with Craig Hutchinson catching Scully at Melbourne Airport with his family, where a smirking Tom said that he was ‘going to have a look around’.
The interview was aired on The Sunday Footy Show, and just 24 hours later, Tom Scully was seen on Youtube in a charcoal shirt, declaring his excitement at having agreed terms with GWS, preaching his enthusiasm for Playstation games and confirming that he was just heading over to the Press Conference.
How Scully managed to stop for a haircut and style between the video and press-conference, and why the video was uploaded to Youtube on the Sunday is anybody’s guess…
At 12pm on Monday, Tom Scully was announced as a Greater Western Sydney player. He would be payed $6million over 6 years as a beaming CEO Dale Holmes proclaimed it ‘A great day for football’. Scully had earlier that day called Melbourne’s Football Director Garry Lyon to inform him off his decision, but while Lyon remained cool as ever on ‘Footy Classified’, and acting President Don McLardy and CEO Cameron
Schwab remained defiant at a press conference – it was the ill Jim Stynes who was reportedly left the most angry at Scully’s decision: Something sure to (and I speak from experience) hurt Melbourne fans a lot more than the prospect of the undersized handballing machine Scully not running around in red and blue in the future.
"The system that has been established by the AFL I believe is a very fair and equitable system…” – Dale Holmes
Scully claimed at the press-conference that he wasn’t only driven by the money, and he gave the Demons a ‘heartfelt’ thank you for his time at the club (also saying that he made the decision now out of “respect for the club”). As this went on, thousands of Demons fans flooded the football message boards, emotions flaring, with messages for ‘Tom $cully’. They had been expecting this day to come for days, weeks and months, but the image of Scully in other colours was enough to lodge Jack Trengove further into fan’s hearts.
The list is good, the list is still talented without Scully, but this is of little comfort to devastated Dees fans. It was him, it was for him who they endured losses in 2009 for. He was meant to be a superstar, elite, a handballing machine with a bigger tank than Ben Cousins and none of the character problems. It was Tom Scully who was handed the #31 guernsey, he was the midfield machine, the ‘Scull’ in Scullgove. It seems bizarre that this kid who the supporter group invested so much into will now be playing with another side in the AFL next year without even bothering to close the door behind him or face the President like a man. Even more baffling is the Giants’ recruiting of James McDonald – almost to snidely remind Melbourne that loyalty goes both ways.
Not only have GWS taken their treasure, but they’ve potted Melbourne’s integrity. Seeing Junior McDonald in a Giants Guernsey next year will hurt fans, but they saw him in the red and blue. For all the hype about Tom Scully, he played 31 games for the Dees, 31! One memorable one against the Western Bulldogs on a rainy Friday night was all the quality they got out of him. Melbourne fans thought they had seen the future, but rather they had been served a tantalizing image of what was soon to be the past.
If you look back twenty years, will one remember Nathan Buckley as a fresh-faced Brisbane Bear, or a courageous captain of Collingwood? How about Jeff White; Fremantle youngster or Melbourne stalwart? These images fade as time passes, and what will hurt the most is that Tom $cully will not be remembered for wearing the red and blue should his career go to plan. He will be remembered as an inaugural GWS Giant, the captain perhaps. The image of a young kid in a Dandenong Stingrays polo, staring the camera down the eyes, is now frozen in only the most passionate Demons fans’ minds. How easy it is to forget…
What really hurt me as an author the most, though, was a photo a friend texted me on Tuesday morning: A photo of Tom Scully arm in arm with Giants coach Kevin Sheedy…both smiling.
There is only going to be one winner out of this whole Tom Scully fiasco, Tom has put a massive target on his head, GWS have created an over inflated pay scale that they will not be able to maintain. Plus the Demons are now in the box seat to control one of the strongest drafts in AFL history next year.
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