Another player to reach a milestone this weekend is crowd favourite and cult hero Eddie Betts. After coming back into the team last week after a few weeks on the sidelines due to injury, Eddie will now front up for his 50th senior game.
Eddie was born in South Australia but grew up in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In his mid-teens he moved to Melbourne with his aunt to join a Football Development Program for young Aboriginal players. The big move to Victoria paid off as he became a member of the strong Calder Cannons team in the TAC Under-18 competition.
Originally overlooked in the National Draft, Betts was expected to be taken by Carlton in 2004 as a rookie, however, when the Blues were trumped by Richmond in the Pre-season Draft; the Blues instead opted for the super exciting Betts with the number three selection. They haven’t looked back since.
From his first game in 2005, Eddie instantly won the hearts of the Carlton faithful, for the first time in years the Blues finally had a genuine small forward. Betts is one of those players with the innate ability to pinch the ball from the pack at full speed and snap a goal from just about any angle.
Despite his small stature, another brilliant feature of Eddie’s game is his ability to chase down and tackle much bigger opponents. This capacity to apply forward line pressure elevates him from the mere goal sneak category, and makes him all the more dangerous for opposition defenders.
In 2006, after an intense pre-season under the tutelage of Assistant Coach Tony Liberatore, Eddie was at times used further up the ground in the midfield where his improved fitness and freakish ability to win the ball in traffic added another dimension to Carlton’s young midfield. However, in round 21 against Collingwood he gave us an important reminder of his goal kicking talent.
In a frantic passage of play, just after Carlton’s Heath Scotland was cleaned up by Alan Didak, Eddie intercepted a Collingwood handpass in the forward pocket; hemmed in on the boundary line and surrounded by opponents, Eddie snapped a banana off one step and slotted a brilliant goal from an impossible angle. He was quite rightly awarded Goal of the Year for 2006. Eddie’s other career highlights to date are; Best First Year player award in 2005 and Pre-Season Premiership player in 2007.
It is great to see another of our young players reach that all important 50 game mark. Congratulations Eddie, may you continue to thrill us for years to come wearing the Old Dark Navy Blue.
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