The AllAustralian kid gets a taste

Pakenham student Lachlan Hansen’s name has become the buzz in football circles but he prefers to keep it simple.
“I just try to be casual, just keep it low key,” the 17year old Gippsland Power footballer said.
For such a prodigious talent, Hansen was a surprisingly late comer to the game.
“I moved to Pakenham when I was 12 and everyone at school played footy, so I thought it would be a good way to meet mates,” Hansen said.
His football career began at Nar Nar Goon Football Club and has now developed to such an extent that he is being talked about as a potential topfive pick for November’s Australian Football League (AFL) National Draft.
After starring for Nar Nar Goon, he made the Gippsland Power team in the TAC Cup competition as a 15yearold.
He has played there since, including playing in their first ever premiership last year at the MCG.
“It was pretty surreal at the start. I was a bit overawed. It was the best time of my life actually,” he said.
“I was a bit toey at the start but once you get the first kick you just concentrate on the game.”
Hansen has represented Victoria Country for the last three years – first at under16 level and then under18 level for the last two years. He also played for Australia on the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) tour of Ireland last year.
The Irish tour stood out for Hansen. “It was the best time ever. A bunch of mates going over to Ireland, going to towns like Belfast,” he said.
“It’s really different to here. There’s barbed wire fences everywhere; that was a bit freaky.
“We ended up losing overall, which was a bit of a bugger, but it was a good experience.”
Under the tuition of former AFL coaches Terry Wheeler and Alan McConnell, Hansen also learned what to expect once he hits the big time.
“It was pretty fullon. If you had an injury – a corky or something – you had to get up, ice it every hour or so. It was an allnight thing, like it was the AFL. That was pretty different; a bit weird doing that,” he said.
He was selected for the AIS after his performance in the AFL under16 Championships and he spent a year with them.
“We had a few camps in Canberra and had things like a practice draft camp; like the beep test and the 3k (run), just to get a feel for what it’s like when the ‘real’ draft camp comes along,” Hansen said.
He also got his first taste of AFL football through the AIS scholarship; spending four days with Richmond in the 2005 preseason.
“It was heaps of running and swimming. It was hard because I don’t really swim, so I might struggle a bit with that,” he said.
“There’s a new pool in Pakenham so I might start swimming there so I can get used to it. I just want to be able to keep up.”
“The players were all really good. They’d take us out for lunch and stuff; treat us as one of them, so hopefully if I do get drafted it’ll be the same.
“I was pretty quiet; just looking at everyone. Like Richo (Matthew Richardson); I was like ‘Man, that’s Richo’. Then he came over and introduced himself.”
The topfive talk began at last year’s AFL under18 Championships and has not stopped since.
“I didn’t really believe that when I saw it. It was a bit much to take in but it was good to know that they know you’re around and you’re doing all right,” Hansen said.
“I just want to keep doing good this year and hopefully get picked up.”
There is no doubt that Hansen will find himself at an AFL club in November’s draft; it is just a matter of where.
“I barrack for Richmond and I like St Kilda; mainly because of Nick Riewoldt. Either of those two would be good but I don’t really care where I go,” he said.
Even interstate?
“It doesn’t bother me really, I just want to play AFL.”
Even if he is drafted to a Victorian club, Hansen is likely to move closer to the city so that he can be right in the thick of the action.
“It’ll be different. I’ll probably get a bit homesick but it should be all right,” he said. “Mum’s not too keen on the idea of me leaving home but she’ll get over it.”
It says a lot about the maturity of Hansen and his modest nature. His success has brought him grudgingly into the world of sports management and he is all too aware of the way it works.
“I’ve kinda gone with one, so now they don’t ring anymore. We tell them to go away because I’ve kinda got one that we are going to go with,” Hansen explained.
Stride Sports Management appear to have acquired his services. Alex McDonald – who was the number one draft pick in the 1988 AFL National Draft and who played over 100 games for Hawthorn and Collingwood – is likely to be his manager.
“They’ve just sort of helped me get boots and stuff. I think they’re just trying to get me on board by getting me a new pair of boots,” Hansen joked.
“They may have spoken to Dad about some other stuff but not with me. Dad deals with all that and I just try to concentrate on my footy.”
It is clearly working and he was rewarded by being named at centrehalfback in the AllAustralian team at last month’s AFL Under18 Championships.
“I didn’t really expect that; I was lucky, I think,” he said.
In typically modest fashion, Hansen hinted that it was a goal of his before the Championships.
“In the back of my mind I wanted to but I didn’t say anything. I was just hoping to play good, so, yeah, it was all right,” he said.
After being knocked out in the second game, most observers expected that it was the end of his carnival but Hansen courageously played in the third and final game of the series.
“I was just running back for the ball and I got the call that I was free – but I wasn’t – and some guy came from the back and knocked me in the head,” Hansen said, in reference to the incident.
“I was feeling all right; I wasn’t sick or anything (going into the third game). I felt good, so it was easy.”
Hansen thinks there is probably one thing a manager will come in handy for.
“I’ve seen the money that firstround draft picks get; 40odd grand or something. I don’t know what I’ll do with all that,” he said.
“I think the manager helps you with all that and gives you just the amount of money you need for the week and stuff, so I won’t have too much money and just spend it all.
“Have you seen the yellow car down there? I don’t want to be driving that around for too long,” Hansen joked.