Scully to soar in draft

By Marc McGowan
BOOM AFL prospect Tom Scully is ignoring the hype about him being this year’s likely number-one draft pick.
And that spells nothing but trouble for his opponents when Victoria Metro starts its National Under-18 Championships campaign against Victoria Country next week.
Berwick-based Scully, who turned 18 last Friday, is renowned as a hard trainer and revealed this week that he increased his workload even further in the pre-season.
The result?
The AIS-AFL Academy graduate smashed the Dandenong Stingrays’ 3km time-trial record in stopping the clock at an astonishing nine minutes and 27 seconds.
Scully’s on-field form has been just as impressive and he averaged more than 27 possessions per game in the opening three rounds of the TAC Cup under-18 competition.
He has since returned to private school football as part of his scholarship at Haileybury College and hasn’t missed a beat – other than being knocked out in a match two weekends ago.
“My form’s been okay so far, but I’ve just found in school footy that I’ve been copping a lot more attention with a bit of close checking and stuff,” Scully said.
“But I was pretty happy with my first three rounds of TAC and my school footy team is going really well and I’m going okay.
“I just went about the pre-season the same way as I have been all these years because I suppose that’s what’s been getting me to where I am now, so why change anything?”
Scully is almost certain to earn the Metro captaincy, just as he did at under-16 level when he shared the Kevin Sheehan Medal for the best Division One player at the 2007 championships.
He backed up that performance in his first experience of the National Under-18 Championships last year when he was the only non-draftable player to earn an All-Australian berth.
But Scully, as usual, is not interested in talking about individual accolades ahead of this year’s instalment.
“You don’t go into a championships thinking about All-Australian or individual honours because it’s all about doing your part for the team,” he said.
“If you can do that it obviously helps your individual performance, but it’s all team-oriented stuff.
“The squad’s looking really strong at the moment.”
Scully is enjoying being involved in successful sides at both the Stingrays and Haileybury and hopes he can help the former atone for last year’s grand-final defeat when he returns later in the season.
“It’s the ultimate goal for the Stingrays, but it’s always tough,” he said.
“The TAC is a really tough competition and you’ve always got to be on your game to win.
“We copped a fair lesson last year, but obviously Murray had some stars playing for them and they were deserving winners.
“All the boys who were involved in the program last year are really eager to go one better, but obviously that’s not the focus.
“It’s just week by week and if we get to the finals we’ll take it from there.”
Scully has kept in contact with all of Dandenong’s three 2008 draftees – Tom Gillies, Ashley Smith and Shane Savage – but particularly former schoolmate Smith.
And the left-footed midfielder, who is a Richmond fan, is eager to join them in AFL ranks.
“I’m happy to play anywhere. Any opportunity you get on an AFL list, that’s all I want to do – just make an AFL list,” Scully said.
“If I’m lucky enough to get that then I’ll take it from there, but I’m not fussed at all. I’ll go anywhere to play league footy.”