Levi puts sting back in Stingrays’ tail

By Paul Pickering
LEVI Casboult is back at Shepley Oval by popular demand this year.
AFL recruiters have requested another look at the towering Dandenong Stingray, giving him the green light to suit up as a mature-age player in his third TAC Cup campaign.
Casboult, 19, walked off the Telstra Dome turf last September with his head held high, believing he’d played his final TAC Cup game.
The 196cm ruckman was among few winners in his side’s demoralising grand final loss to the Murray Bushrangers.
He played one of his best games for the season on the competition’s biggest stage, but seemed destined to remember it as a bitter-sweet swansong.
Six months later, the Berwick resident has returned to Pultney Street alongside fellow 19-year-olds Ben Mitchell and Alex Goodingham as the elder statesmen on the Stingrays list in 2009.
At the end of each season, officials from all TAC Cup clubs provide AFL Victoria’s talent manager with a list of players they think could benefit from another year in the competition – most having missed games through injury or other interruptions.
That list is given to the AFL recruiters, who hand-pick the players that are on their radars.
In Casboult’s case, he’s only been playing Aussie rules for three years, so, in footy parlance, he has plenty of ‘up-side’.
Casboult trained with VFL club Frankston over the summer, but new Dolphins coach Shannon Grant happ-ily released him to the Stingrays after a new rule was introduced allowing TAC Cup stars to play a handful of games as the 23rd man in the VFL this season.
The emerging big man is delighted to be back.
“It’s a bit strange, because there are a lot of new faces around the club, but I’m looking forward to it,” Casboult said.
“It’s good to hear that (AFL) clubs are looking at you, because it gives you that motivation to keep training hard.”
Casboult grew up in Tasmania and played soccer for most of his childhood. He only picked up footy when he came to Victoria.
It took just one season in the under-16s at Beaconsfield for his size and athleticism to grab the attention of Stingrays scouts.
Casboult’s strong finish to last season was enough to convince Stingrays regional manager Darren Flanigan that he would benefit from another year of expert tutelage.
“He was only 16 when he started playing footy, so he has a limited knowledge of the game,” Flanigan explained.
“And in our environment, we can teach him how to play different positions and he can continue to improve, whereas it’s a bit more brutal and win-loss focused in the VFL.”
Casboult knows he’s not tall enough to play as a ruckman in the AFL, so he has welcomed a move to centre-half-forward in Dandenong’s pre-season hit-outs.
He also knows he’s playing catch-up after coming to the game late, but he’s determined to follow the path of Collingwood defender Tyson Goldsack – a mature-age player for Gippsland Power – into the AFL.
“If I’d been playing longer I suppose I could have been drafted (last year), but I guess that just means I have to work a lot harder to get to the same level as everyone else,” he said.
Casboult has embraced the opportunity to be a leader at the club this year, and he is planning to guide the Stingrays towards a chance at redemption in the 2009 grand final.