Collingwood ruckman Darcy Cameron’s journey from being overlooked in three drafts to an AFL grand final

You also need to know what it’s like to maintain those qualities in the face of constant disappointment.

Then maybe you’ll understand what Cameron has overcome to traverse the AFL scrap heap and force his way onto the biggest stage at the league’s largest club.

Overlooked in three consecutive AFL drafts, Cameron finally got his start at Sydney, struggled for opportunity then emerged as Collingwood’s No.1 ruck. But the seeds of a rocky career were sown long beforehand.

Playing footy was almost a predetermined conclusion for Cameron.

He inherited dad Gerard’s height, soon towering above peers at the North Albany Football Club in the deep south of Western Australia. But a 204cm frame didn’t guarantee success.

Cameron showed enough potential in his junior years to earn an invitation to Claremont’s futures program in Perth, five hours away by car. That progressed to colts football, WA’s highway to the draft.

In his final underage year, 2013, Cameron moved to Perth and started boarding at Hale School after deciding to throw everything at a possible football career.

Cameron was always talked about as a draft prospect. Players of his height and skill don’t grow on trees. But there was one stumbling block.

“There was always raps on him,” then Claremont colts coach Ben Dyer recalls. “But I don’t know if he really understood how much work he had to put in.”

Cameron’s best traits were plain for AFL recruiters to see. He rucked for Western Australia at the under-18 national championships, showing surprisingly advanced skills for a big fella.

“He was as good a kick as the midfielders in the group,” Dyer said. “For a big, raw, gangly kid, he was really nice by foot. You don’t see that very often from ruckmen.

“A lot of the time you don’t want them kicking the ball but we didn’t mind because he had a beautiful kick.”

Claremont won the colts grand final that year, overcoming South Fremantle by six points in a team that featured future draftees Tom Barrass, Rowan Powell, Alec Waterman, Francis Watson and Timm House.

The stirring come-from-behind win was ultimately decided by Cameron’s crowning moment. Deep into the last quarter, he kicked the goal that put Claremont ahead.

“It was at Subiaco Oval and he kicked it from the boundary. It was a really good goal. That’s one of the only moments I remember from that game,” Dyer said.

Cameron was one of Claremont’s best, finishing with 12 touches, five marks, 38 hitouts, four clearances and the winning goal. But a couple of months later, he was overlooked at the AFL draft.

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At that point, Cameron could’ve easily given up.

“Particularly for country boys, some of them think, ‘I’ve had a crack, I’ll just go home and be a local hero’,” then Claremont football manager turned CEO Darcy Coffey said.

“Once kids miss their draft year, they’re like used cars. People think there’s something wrong with them and you tend to focus on what you can’t do … some kids don’t get picked up and lose that ambition.

“It’s a credit to him and his parents Gerard and Vanessa for saying to him, ‘No, stay in Perth and stick at it’.”

The 2014 WAFL season saw a new era ushered in at Claremont, with Michael Broadbridge appointed head coach. Cameron was elevated into the Tigers’ league squad.

It was obvious he had the potential to play senior football.

But Claremont’s ruck stocks were already in good health. Former West Coast premiership player Mark Seaby was in the twilight of his state league career, while Mitch Andrews was an experienced option as well.

“Michael Broadbridge saw a lot in him,” Coffey said. “We were a club on the cusp of finals and there were a lot of other talented big blokes running around.

“But Broady made sure he got an opportunity to develop when some other coaches might not have done the same.”

There was one caveat. Cameron would have to learn how to play as a key forward.

“Our focus was on how we could support him and get him to the point where he could be drafted,” Broadbridge said.

“One of the first things I did was convince the club to get Damien McMahon on board as our talls and development coach.

“He was previously a senior coach at Perth. But we knew with these talls, we needed to spend a lot of time working on his craft and at WAFL level, it’s rare you get that time.

“He was a bit of a slow burn like most young tall players are. If you can imagine a tennis player or a golfer and the amount of swings they need to perfect their art, it’s somewhat similar with young talls. They need the repetition.”

McMahon joined the Tigers mid-season. Part of his remit was supporting a host of young players who had missed out on the draft but were still deemed high-end talent, like Cameron.

“He was a big, tall, youngster who we deemed a ruckman but he didn’t take enough marks and he wasn’t potent enough as a forward,” McMahon said.

McMahon and Cameron spent countless hours together before and after training, analysing and improving his marking, ruck craft and goalkicking technique. Every inch of his game.

“I remember spending a good half an hour before every training session kicking balls at him,” McMahon recalled.

“He became the forward focus for us. He became a very good goal-kicker and his accuracy went through the roof. He reaped the rewards of that and his marking became a great asset … which he probably wasn’t known for previously.

“His ruck craft was probably put aside for that period of time. But he was still backing up Mitch Andrews.”

Despite the gains, Cameron was overlooked again in 2014.

And again in 2015 despite a strong season. Clubs noted his potential. But the view was his ability wasn’t quite at the level that the AFL demanded.

“We took lots of feedback from lots of AFL recruiters,” McMahon said. “We had to push him pretty hard to address that.

“There were some knocks on him that he was too laconic, he wasn’t aggressive enough, he didn’t work hard enough.

“His sole focus became becoming an AFL draftee. He was bitterly disappointed. But his attitude continued to lift and he took on that feedback.

“Lots of people thought he should’ve or would’ve got drafted but he kept doing the work and he was at a club that was really focused on developing players. Nobody ever gave up on getting these kids to the next level.”

There was another contributing factor, according to Tigers of the time.

For one of the rare periods in Claremont’s history, the western suburbs club was shunted off-Broadway. A multimillion-dollar redevelopment of its Davies Road home meant playing home games on an oval usually reserved for cattle parades and showjumping.

“It wasn’t particularly outstanding circumstances over at the Showgrounds,” Coffey mused. “The boys were rocking up and getting changed in a sea container on showbag alley.”

*****

Cameron persevered and in 2016, everything fell into place.

Seaby retired, leaving Andrews and Cameron to split ruck duties. But Cameron’s biggest impact came up forward. He kicked 36 goals for the season, the most of any Tiger and took 106 marks, an average of 5.6 a game.

AFL clubs gradually came crawling back, willing to take another look at the man they’d thrice snubbed.

“He’d proved to some people that he’d gotten a lot fitter and his work rate was more impressive,” McMahon said, adding Cameron was now “equally good” as a forward or ruck.

“His ability to mark the ball at WAFL senior level is probably the thing that got him over the line and managed to get him drafted.

“Going into that draft, we still didn’t think he was a 100 per cent chance of getting there but we were all optimistic he’d done enough work.

“The first few years he was going in based on potential.

“In his final year at Claremont, everyone could see he was no doubt the most talented young tall in the WAFL and probably one of the best in the country. His size and maturity put him ahead of half a dozen others.”

Essendon, Geelong, West Coast and Fremantle all inquired. The Swans took the leap of faith with pick No.48.

“It was pure joy for the entire family after how hard he’d worked,” Coffey said. “A lot of people were also almost thinking, ‘Yeah, bloody obviously’.

“I’m not sure we knew he’d go on to get the chance to potentially become an AFL premiership ruckman. But purely based on his ability and his potential, it was obvious he deserved to be in the AFL system.”

Success wasn’t immediate and, partly due to some injury concerns, Cameron played just one game for Sydney in 2018.

After three years at the Swans, he sought a trade to Collingwood where he played 10 games in his first season. That went up to 18 in 2021 and 24 in 2022, partnering Brodie Grundy when he was fit.

As McMahon points out, the Magpies then “traded out its best ruckman to make way for Darcy, the up-and-comer”.

“He’s now their No.1 ruckman and he could potentially be a member of the best team in the country.”

The final four teams left standing in finals were all led by rucking journeymen: Cameron. Oscar McInerney, Marc Pittonet and Kieren Briggs.

Teams don’t necessarily need an A-grade ruckman to scale the mountain. They just need someone with heart.

Cameron hasn’t even played 100 games of senior football, eight years into a career that’s bridged three states and plenty of setbacks.

The grand final will be his 72nd AFL game.

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But for those who played a hand in the 28-year-old’s journey, that is many more than they’d ever once imagined.

“It’s no surprise he’s been able to hang in there because that’s been the story of his entire career,” Coffey said.

Added Broadbridge: “Now he gets the reward for it. He gets to play in a grand final and who knows what happens on Saturday afternoon.”