A late-season match against an AFL ruckman was enough to convince Geelong recruiters to draft Ryan Abbott, according to the Cats.
They used their last pick on 200cm Abbot after his performance against Melbourne’s Jake Spencer in a VFL game at the back end of 2016.
Twenty-five-year-old Abbott had spent most of the year playing for Grovedale Tigers where he won consecutive best-and-fairest awards after returning to footy from seven years in basketball.
He considered his luck with the Cats as encouragement to other players outside the usual career paths to AFL.
“I can’t stress enough to boys who don’t get drafted out of the TAC Cup that your career is not done,” Abbott told the Cats’ website.
“You have just got to go back to a lower level and play as well as you can and people will come knocking.”
Abbott was among a series of AFL ruck draftees who followed non-traditional routes to their new clubs.
Sydney’s Darcy Cameron was selected at pick 48 after missing out in the previous three drafts while Essendon’s Sam Draper was chosen first at the rookie draft despite playing his first Aussie Rules in February.
The selections demonstrated how AFL ruck hopefuls should never give up on their dreams of finding clubs, Abbott said.
“I had some really good feedback from the coaches and some of the senior coaches as well were pretty impressed with how my game was coming along.
“That’s when I thought I might be able to make something of this.
“They were really happy with how I competed against another solid AFL-quality ruckman, just that bigger body.”
