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PACY defender Dennis Armfield has impressed Carlton fans since his debut in round 10, but he knows he still has a long road ahead of him.
The 21-year-old is a late convert to AFL from rugby, but he has delighted the coaching panel with his determination to improve since arriving through last year’s NAB AFL Draft.
“I’m still picking up skills; it’s like I can still look at a game now and someone will say ‘oh wouldn’t it be easier if you ran over there’ and I’ll think ‘yeah that’s a good tip’, so there’s still a lot of learning for me to do,” Armfield says.
Armfield played rugby after moving to Perth from Canberra in 1992, but switched to AFL in 2003 after the demands of his father’s job meant he could no longer take him to training.
He quickly caught the attention of WAFL side Swan Districts, which added him to their list, but it wasn't a seamless transition between codes.
“I didn’t like the way that in AFL you can do a lot of running and not get used or not get the ball, because in union playing fly-half I got my hands on the ball every 30 seconds or so,” he recalls.
“I also found kicking a bit hard because the only kicks we’d do would be torpedoes or big up and unders and it doesn’t really matter how they come off the boot just as long as they go high."
One skill that transfers nicely between the sports is tackling, an area of the game Armfield has covered.
“It’s just something that I love to do, even when they get the tackle bags out,” he says.
“And in a game when a guy is running away from me I always like to think ‘yeah I can catch you’.”
Armfield’s path to the AFL took a detour when he walked away from Swan Districts to concentrate on his year 12 studies in 2004, but he returned the year after and by the 2007 season he was a first-team regular.
He was swimming at the beach at a rehab session with his Swans teammates when the draft was held.
“When I got out of the water I had a few missed calls and a few of my mates had left a message saying I’d gone to Geelong at pick 18 so I rang one of them and asked if he was serious which he wasn’t obviously,” he says.
“Then I got another message saying ‘Pick 46 to Carlton’ and by that stage I just thought ‘Yeah, right’. But then my dad rang me and then Shane O’Sullivan and Wayne Hughes, so I knew it was for real.”
Armfield's AFL debut was delayed because of injury when he had been slated to play against the Eagles in round seven, but he hasn’t looked back since seizing his chance against Geelong in round 10.
“The boys helped me out a lot early on. They all got around me and told me just to play my game and that I was in the side for a reason."
Armfield has settled nicely into his new city.
“I have sort of stood back and taken the time to go ‘Wow, I’m an AFL footballer; that’s my job, it’s what I do day in day out’,” he says.
“I know I’m a lot better off than a lot of people and I don’t take it for granted.
"I know this could last six months or 10 years and it’s up to me how long I make it last."
