‘Pretty happy with himself’: How Cats legend helped Stewart become potential captain

For all Matthew Scarlett has achieved in football – three AFL premierships, six All-Australian berths, a Geelong best and fairest and a spot in the Australian Football Hall of Fame – his role in the ascension of Tom Stewart makes him as proud as anything else.

“Absolutely. That’s the best part about coaching. Obviously the win-loss is very important, but the development of your players, for an assistant coach, is the thing that trumps everything,” Scarlett said this week.

Flying high: Tom Stewart.Credit:Getty

Rarely can a star player’s journey to the AFL’s elite have been as inextricably linked with a previous great than in the relationship of Stewart and Scarlett.

It is a tale quickly becoming entrenched in Geelong folklore: Scarlett, freshly retired from the Cats, finding the talented but immature Stewart at South Barwon in 2013. With Scarlett as playing coach they would combine for a premiership and set in train a series of events that have Stewart on track for a third All-Australian blazer in just five seasons on an AFL list and in the frame to be the club’s next captain.

Their bond has been bound tighter, with Scarlett – who became a full-time Geelong assistant coach at the end of 2015 – further guiding Stewart’s development as the Cats’ backline coach since Stewart was drafted out of the Geelong VFL program as a 23-year-old with pick 40 of the 2016 draft.

Stewart, now 28, had played for the Geelong Falcons as a junior but went undrafted. His beginnings with Scarlett were inauspicious.

“I remember one of his first sessions down at the local footy I just paired myself up on this guy. I could see that he was pretty happy with himself. We had 15 or 20 one-on-ones, I think I managed to beat him in probably all of them except one. I just reminded him that he still had a fair bit of work to go,” Scarlett said.

But Paul Corrigan, who played 53 senior games for the Cats in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says Stewart stood out when they combined for a flag with South Barwon in 2012.

“I just saw heaps of potential in Tommy. I just thought he had all the attributes, he had great speed, he had really good strength for being a younger player at the time,” said Corrigan, who these days coaches the Falcons.

“All he needed to do was mature a bit.

“The mental side of the game. Not so much always gameday but understanding what it took during the week.”

“I could see that he was pretty happy with himself”

Corrigan speaks warmly of a mildly brash youngster, whose journey Corrigan now uses to inspire those he coaches who are bypassed at the draft. He agrees with the assertion that there are more Tom Stewarts out there across Australia.

“He was always very confident and I loved that about him,” Corrigan said.

“He’s always loved his hair too. He’s always been passionate about his hair.

“Some players are ready to go at 18, 19 and with Tommy it took a little bit longer.

“I say to [my players], ‘what is the path? What has a [Geelong VFL turned AFL player] Tom Atkins done? What has a Tommy Stewart done?’”

By mid-2016, Stewart had landed on the radar of AFL club recruiters, one of whom reflected during the week that had there been a mid-season draft five years ago, Stewart would have been an ideal candidate.

Come the lead-up to the national draft there was interest from several clubs, including some from outside Victoria.

Stewart more than hinted to some other clubs that his preference was to stay at home. He is not the first and won’t be the last player to do so, and other clubs could have done what the Cats did 12 months later when they backed themselves in and drafted the mature-age Tim Kelly from Western Australia.

Matthew Scarlett in action for the Cats.Credit:Sebastian Costanzo

“I did everything I could in my power to stay in Geelong,” Stewart remembers of that time.

“I was settled. If footy didn’t work out I could still stay in the town.

“I interviewed with a fair few clubs but I was pretty keen on staying in Geelong and I let other clubs know that. Again, it’s all worked out well for me in the end.”

Ultimately no other club took the punt, allowing Geelong to pounce on Stewart late in the second-round.

As the defender prepares for his 100th AFL game on Thursday night, it looks like a steal.

I interviewed with a fair few clubs but I was pretty keen on staying in Geelong and I let other clubs know that

Coincidentally the milestone comes against the side he used to barrack for: the Brisbane Lions. Stewart’s dad was a Fitzroy supporter and growing up Tom’s favourite player was Nigel Lappin, who would later become his assistant coach at Geelong.

And there could yet be another incredible chapter to come. The kid deemed not mature enough to be taken in his draft year is a serious contender to succeed Joel Selwood as Geelong captain.

Corrigan says the transformation is clear.

“He helped out with the [Geelong] women’s program, so from that perspective, the maturity of where he’s come from where it was at times maybe you would have thought ‘it’s just about Tommy Stewart,’ I think he now knows about that team environment and I think he just gives himself to everything. I think that’s helped him as a player,” Corrigan said.

Scarlett admits that while he thought Stewart had the makings of a good player, he never thought he would be this good.

“The standards he sets for himself are through the roof and that trickles down to his teammates. He demands high standards,” Scarlett said.

“He really worries about how the footy club is going, his teammates and the direction of the club. All that stuff. Absolutely one day he could [captain the club].

“It’s a pretty bloody good story really when you go back to the start of it.”

Stewart though remains grounded, and won’t buy into talk of him being the best defender in the league.

“It’s been obviously a really cool week, and my son and my wife are able to come up with me [to Brisbane], which is pretty special,” Stewart said on Wednesday.

“I’m just a kicker that’s just come from South Barwon that’s just trying to play his role.”

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