‘I honestly just play for fun’: The story behind breakout star Bolton

Last year Shai Bolton took mark of the year, but not mark of the round. He was in a punch-up in a nightclub that saw him punished by the AFL but not his club. He became the new pillar of the Richmond midfield without Dusty and in the space of a season moved from exciting young player to bona-fide star.

It was the very definition of a breakout season.

Shai Bolton just loves to play football.Credit:Jason South

Twelve months ago, Bolton was a flashy forward flanker who spent short bursts in the midfield but when Dustin Martin and then Dion Prestia were out injured and Shane Edwards and Trent Cotchin missed games Richmond needed someone to take hold of the midfield. Others contributed, but Bolton was the standout.

“I just think last year I felt like going into midfield more, getting me around the ball more, made me feel more confident. And I think, like every player, you just get more confident and you do things that you’ll do back at home or back where we used to play and in my eyes if you are confident you will play good football,” he said.

He recently returned from his break back home in WA, where he said he was “more disciplined than I have ever been” with his diet, and got a personal trainer to train with him. He says he returned for pre-season fitter than any time in the past. Yes, this time of year is rife with stories of ‘fitter than ever’ players, but Bolton as a new star of the competition was plainly determined not to be complacent.

Shai Bolton pulls off his screamer over Tom Lynch and Mark Blicavs.Credit:Getty Images

Out of contract at season’s end, and despite the strong pull of family in WA, he was not tempted to leave Punt Road and signed on to remain with the Tigers.

He has an uncluttered approach to the very cluttered idea of modern football, which takes a simple game and makes it difficult.

He understands the need for structures, plans and set plays, but also says football is still just a game – play it for fun and play it the way you always played it, so jump on a head for the speccy and snap the goal to get the crowd up and going.

That basic ethos, he said, was behind his breakout year. Don’t get caught up in who the opposition is, or who is not in your team, and only worry about the crowd if you can get them excited and pump you up.

“I honestly just play for fun and Dimma [Hardwick] talks about that all the time … I am pretty chilled and, you know, I love playing football and I love winning obviously. And I just love to play the game and just have fun with it.

“I talk to [Indigenous teammates] about it all the time. Obviously, you know us Indigenous boys we are all pretty close. If we had a bad game or he [Maurice Rioli junior] had a bad game, I just give him a talk and just say like, ‘you’re very young, you know you are only going to get better’.

“I can’t explain it, it’s just that chemistry that just connects us. It doesn’t matter where Daniel [Rioli] is from, it doesn’t matter where Marlion [Pickett] is from, we all just come together and just connect. I think it’s just in general Indigenous people we connect.”

Shai Bolton on the run during a breakout season.Credit:Getty Images

Bolton wants the AFL Indigenous All-Stars games, another AFL casualty of COVID-19, to be reinstated as soon as possible.

The chance to play together as Indigenous players was not something that should be lost in the wash of things that have disappeared with COVID-19 ripping through the competition, he said.

“It would be good [to play the All-Stars game again]. The first time I watched it I was in Perth. Shedder [Shane Edwards] was talking about it that they were considering it [coming back], I’m not too sure. It would be good if it did.”

Shai Bolton says he would love to play the All-Stars game again.Credit:Getty Images

It is the idea of playing together like you are a kid and thrilling the crowd with a mark or a goal that excites Bolton.

Behaving on instinct has its limitations. Bolton last year got in a fracas in a nightclub and broke his wrist when he jumped in to defend teammate Rioli after another patron had insulted Rioli’s girlfriend then hit Rioli.

Bolton instinctively intervened to defend his teammate. He and Richmond were later fined $20,000 by the AFL because Bolton had “exacerbated the situation not de-escalated it”. Instructively Richmond did not punish Bolton.

Bolton did not want to talk about that night and its aftermath, which was one of the moments that punctuated an extraordinary season for him. It was a season in which he won mark of the year for his effort against Geelong in round eight but bizarrely was not voted in as mark of the round in the popular vote of fans.

‘I am pretty chilled and, you know, I love playing football and I love winning obviously. And I just love to play the game and just have fun with it.’

Richmond is a big club but the weight of Collingwood numbers voting for their forward Brody Mihocek originally saw the Magpie getting the nod as mark of the round. An AFL rule allowed Bolton to still be eligible to win mark of the year.

“Everyone at home was trying to vote for me. I think the only one who was really excited was probably my mum. My family are pretty chilled, so they don’t say much about it, and they’ve seen me take speccies since I was a kid.

“But my mum, when I’d first done it, she was very excited. When it didn’t make mark of the week she was like ‘what!’

“I didn’t really take much notice of it, I knew it was a better mark! But it kind of just goes quick in AFL football, you move on to the next thing, the next game, and you’ve got to think about other stuff.”

He later won the mark of the year and edged out teammate Jack Riewoldt, which plainly gave him great pleasure on the awards night. “Maybe next time mate,” he smiled patronisingly.

Bolton unashamedly loves the adrenalin of the stage and delivering the big mark or goal.

“It’s a hard one to know [which is more fun]. You kick a pretty good goal and the crowd goes wild. I reckon both – the crowd get into you and it hypes you up a bit more.

“I kind of just jump at the ball and if I see someone there it’s like I just go at the ball, I don’t think ‘oh I’m going to jump on your back’.

“Sometimes I feel like that adrenalin when you get that run up and you just know that you’re gonna jump on someone’s head but the thing is you have got to mark it or sometimes it slips out so you think about the mark.

“Every time when I feel like I’m going to jump on someone I get excited. But that’s been in me since I was little. I loved taking screamers when I was in junior football. I tried to do it as much as I can. But, obviously, now football, AFL sometimes you got to just stay down.

“The coaching staff and Dimma say the structures are just like a starting point for you and then from there just play footy. I just think about playing football as when I was a kid back at home. Just enjoying it, just having fun. I still do it to this day right now. Playing football, I don’t take it too seriously because I love playing football and it’s just fun for me.

“A lot of Indigenous players play off instinct. And I think they just play like how they used to play back home. It’s just fun. They take structures and stuff seriously, obviously it’s like a big thing, but when you have got the ball in your hand you just want to take the game on. I think it just comes naturally.”

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