When it came to player trading time last October the Blues were consistently linked to Sydney’s Ryan O’Keefe. No trade eventuated, and Ryan remains with the Swans. Come November though, Wayne Hughes and his team decided we’d have our own R O’Keefe… Rhys O’Keeffe! OK, so the first name is slightly different, and Rhys plays in defence rather than up forward, but we at Mike and Dan reckon we may well have found our own true blueblood R O’Keeffe All Australian. So we took the chance to sit down with him, and chat about his introduction to the Carlton Football Club.

Brett Ratten indicated that first year players would work on a modified training program to ensure they don't get fatigued. What is your program like, and what is the major emphasis (speed, strength?).

The Club is really looking after the health of the young draftees, and as a result their programs are based on monitoring our progress. We are supposed to only do 70-80 per cent of the training load of rest of the team, the guys who have been there for a while. The Club is particularly trying to make sure we don’t get any stress related injuries or osteitis pubis. I guess in some ways it is good, because you get rested after you have done a fair bit of work like constant kicking. They pull you out of training if their monitoring systems say they need to.

Brett Ratten is big on players working or studying outside of training and playing commitments. What do you do outside of the club?

At the moment I am in the middle of the AFL PA apprenticeship with all the other draftees from the AFL Clubs. This is a 12-week training program and takes you through a whole lot of life skills like financial management and defensive driving skills. I haven’t been out to the defensive driving course yet, but I am looking forward to it!

Have you had a chance to sit down with the coach and set goals for season 2009? If so, what are you aiming to achieve?

My real aim is to debut in 2009 and develop my kicking skills and fitness. In particular, I’m working on the kicking skills on my right foot, that’s pretty important.

That brings us to our next question. Training watchers tell us about your amazing left foot. As a leftie, do you have a right one that you can use?

My right foot is getting better, and it is something that I am heavily working on! One of the strengths of my game is my left foot though.

Many pundits had you going far earlier in the draft than where we took you.  Were you getting nervous on the day?

I sat at home and watched it on the internet, and I had all my family around me. I tried not to get too worried when my name wasn’t called out, thinking that if it was going to happen then it was going to happen. At about pick 60, Dad started to sing my local club song, thinking that I’d be playing with them again in 2009. But I am really glad that Carlton chose me, and I am happy to be here.

You’ve been spoken of as a possible future AFL midfielder. Given you have been a half back flanker, how would you feel about moving into the midfield during the course of your career?

That would be great but I have a long way to go fitness wise. At the moment, I am really benefiting from training with Judd and Murph in midfield drills. They are great guys to learn from, just to watch them and understand what you need to do. 

We have a great heritage of South Australians at Carlton… Kernahan, Bradley, Motley, McKay, and now Russell, Gibbs and Austin. Does the club have a South Australian feel to it? And have you had much of a chance to work with Sticks and Braddles since you arrived?

I actually live with Jordan Russell, so there is a bit of a South Australian flavour there. Since I’ve been at the club, I’ve talked to Braddles a bit, and he’s given me a bit of advice on his early days at Carlton. I’ve also chatted to Sticks a few times. At the end of it all, everyone is different though. 

Who have you lined-up on in the practice matches?

I lined up on Ryan Houlihan in both games. In the first game he stitched me up but the second game I thought I had his measure! He’s a gun player though.

Is there anyone at the club you were totally surprised by when you met them (i.e. much better than you though they were)?

Not really. Although I thought Eddie Betts would be quiet, but he was one of the loudest guys I’ve ever met in my life! He’s always talking, you can never shut him up! Wiggler is also a character. But he’s a funny one, 100 per cent ferocious one minute, and then having a real laugh the next. He’s good for advice too and helping the young boys out with life and stuff.

Who did you barrack for growing up? And is there an all-time favourite footballer of yours?

I was a Crows fan. Being a South Australian, there’s really only the two choices. Tony Modra was an all-time favourite. But I wasn’t a frustrated full-forward at any stage. I mainly played midfield in my childhood. The thing is that I love to take speccies.

At the end of it all we sensed that Rhys was enjoying his time at Carlton, and we felt like we definitely did have our very own navy blue R O’Keeffe. That’s O’Keeffe with a double ‘f’ for all the fans of other clubs, and we hope he can add ‘AA’ (All Australian) to his name over the course of his career, just like the bloke up in Sydney.