It’s hard enough as it is watching and waiting for your name to be called . . . but spare a thought for the draft hopeful who was Tom Williamson.
On the morning of the 2016 AFL National Draft, in part to take his mind of the impending football lottery, Williamson pottered around on his family’s 400-acre hobby farm at Rhymney, about a 10-minute’s drive north-west of his home town of Ararat.
Later on he got in nine holes of golf, demolished a pizza and duly dealt with the many and varied well-wishers along the way.
As with so many hoping to make the cut, Williamson was glued to Fox Footy’s live Sydney telecast on the night of Friday, November 25 - and waiting and waiting and waiting.
Compounding Williamson’s anxiety though was a flaw in transmission, which meant that the sights and sounds of the Hordern Pavilion weren’t finding their way to the family set in real time.
“We have a Telstra Tbox that runs off wifi, and there was a 10-second delay with it,” Williamson said.
“I remember that one of the clubs passed at around pick 60, which made me start thinking I was going to be overlooked,” Williamson said.
“It then got to pick 61 and there was a glitch in the broadcast, during which time I must have got a thousand messages on my mobile. I remember thinking ‘Oh my phone’s gone off’ and the next thing looking up on the screen and seeing my name.”
In effect, Williamson’s mates first knew he’d been drafted to Carlton, and it wasn’t until normal transmission resumed that the budding onballer actually realised he’d been named with the Blues’ fourth-round selection at 61 overall.
Watch Williamson's under-18 highlights
In Williamson, Carlton has landed a true pro, for it was he who previously suggested to his parents that St Pat’s College Ballarat would best serve his on-field aspirations.
Having shot hoops with his mates in Ballarat and later chased the leather for the North Ballarat Rebels, St Pat’s – whose best-and-fairest player medal carries the moniker of Carlton’s late Brownlow Medallist and four-time Club Champion John James – seemed like the right fit.
“St Pat’s had a pretty good footy program, I made the call and Mum and Dad were happy to support it,” said Williamson, who not so long ago completed his VCE and gained his driver’s licence.
“Obviously I wanted a better education, but footy was my dream and I went for that first of all – and that really helped with my footy.”
At St Pat’s, player and team complemented each other beautifully, and successes surely came their way.
“In my Year 11 we won the BAS (Ballarat Association Schools) competition and we also knocked off Essendon Keilor College in the Herald Sun competition,” Williamson explained.
“Last year we won the BAS again, but lost the Herald-Sun Shield Final to Geelong by a kick after the siren and that was gut-wrenching.”
Williamson’s elite endurance levels were the talk of the AFL Draft Combine, with his first placing in the agility test, a second in the three-kilometre time trial and top-10s in five more tests, the beep included.
Considered a skilful medium defender/midfielder who can break games open with his genuine speed, he’s also rated by the good footy judges for his general awareness, footy smarts and prolific ball-winning capabilities.
At Carlton, Williamson was soon confronted with the first of the many and varied challenges of life in the AFL – of adjusting to life in the big smoke.
“I guess moving to the city and away from family was the biggest thing for me,” he said. “In Ararat and Ballarat you’re 10 minutes from everything, but in Melbourne, just going to the supermarket can be a bit of an ordeal, what with people, cars and all that.
“Even now, to walk in here and say G’day to ‘Crippa’ (Patrick Cripps) and ‘Murph’ (Marc Murphy) is really weird.
“But I’m getting there. Once I got the first few days out of the way I realised this was something I always wanted to do and how good it is to play footy.”
Williamson gets his hands dirty during his first pre-season at Carlton. (Photo: AFL Media)
Williamson has also drawn on the support of his elders. An early influence was Ed Curnow (“totally professional in everything that he does”) and Kade Simpson as the mentor, together with Sam Docherty who also rates a more than honourable mention.
“They have been and are totally generous with their time and I’m just trying to learn from them,” said Williamson, who is now domiciled with a host family in leafy Mont Albert.
“I’m just loving being around them and being part of the Club. I’m just itching to play.”
The weeks and months have come and gone so quickly since Williamson’s memorable drafting, and any homesickness has long passed.
At Carlton, he’s inherited a new nickname. He answers to ‘Shooter’, though it’s got nothing to do with Carlton’s 1908 premiership half-back Arthur ‘Shooter’ Ford. As he explained: “There’s a guy who makes these funny videos on facebook called ‘Shooter’ Williamson, and that’s where it comes from”.
Jokes aside, Williamson truly understands why Carlton called his name in the first place.
“Obviously last year they went ‘tall’ and drafted bigger boys,” he said.
“This year they identified quick midfielders who were good kicks and could run, these are some of my traits, and if you look at the other boys like ‘Kymy’ (Kym Lebois), ‘Fish’ (Zac Fisher) and ‘Pols’ (Cameron Polson) they’re all like that.”
A Collingwood supporter in a previous life (given that his old man strung a few under-19s together with the black and whites), Williamson, at 18 and in his maiden season, will do whatever it takes to better himself as a Carlton person.
Who knows where that will take him given senior coach Brendon Bolton’s “no limits” ethos.
