Bailey Van De Heuvel’s rapid rise to AFL Draft hope after chance meeting took him to Geelong’s VFL side

Yet 10 months ago, Bailey Van De Heuvel was almost a local footballer.

He had resolved to leave Footscray and the VFL.

“I’d fully decided I was going to pull the pin and go back home and play at Ballarat,’’ he says.

“I just couldn’t do the travel any more from Ballarat because I was working full-time and driving to Footscray two or three times a week.’’

Doing a running session with a couple of mates at Barwon Heads in the new year, he ran into Geelong AFL development coach Shane O’Bree.

They got talking and O’Bree asked Van De Heuvel about his plans for 2023.

He said he was heading back to his local club, the Ballarat Swans.

“Come and have a crack at Geelong,’’ O’Bree replied.

Four days later, a mate offered Van De Heuvel, an electrician, a job at Torquay. He felt the move was meant to be.

“The stars aligned, I guess,’’ he says.

The VFL Dog became a VFL Cat and he had his best year in the league, standing key forwards and marking everything bar Year 12 English exams.

The 200cm left-footer’s best performances came in the second half of the season: 11 marks against former team Footscray, 10 against Casey Demons and 12 against Brisbane.

He averaged 6.2 marks from his 17 games, interesting AFL clubs enough to gain an invitation to the draft state combine.

Van De Heuvel says he was “stoked’’.

“It was a bit unexpected, to be honest, especially being 25,’’ he says.

“I knew there was a little bit of AFL interest, a few whispers and stuff, but I didn’t really know how true it was until I got that phone call (from Geelong coach Mark Corrigan). Once I found out, it all became a lot more real.’’

Van De Heuvel thought he tested “not too bad’’; he ran a 6:45 for the 2km, a PB by a long way.

“The agility and the sprints aren’t really my forte, being a 200cm, 100kg bloke! But it was a good day,’’ he says.

In the lead-up to the combine, he trained for four or five days for six weeks; encouraged by Corrigan, who came out in the Geelong Advertiser and declared AFL clubs should be looking at his big defender.

Corrigan said the same to CODE Sports.

“His back-half of the year for us was outstanding,’’ he said.

“We worked on a couple of things to try to enhance his ability to play on quicker forwards, his positioning, his angles, and in terms of turning defence into offence, he’s as good as I’ve seen at VFL level … marking the ball and then taking strengths away from opposition really quickly. He’s super-tough and he’s so competitive; he just hates getting beaten. He’s made of all the right stuff.’’

For a long time, Van De Heuvel preferred cricket to football; he was more interested in bowling out batters than bowling over forwards.

He “lived and breathed’’ cricket, playing and training 10 months of the year.

The Ballarat Courier gave him a write-up in 2015 when he claimed his third hat-trick.

The paceman was good enough to play for regional representative teams, including a Central Highlands Under 18 side that played in a grand final on the MCG.

He was also in Vic Country trials, being left out at the last cut.

“Footy was a secondary sport to me. It was all about cricket,’’ Van De Heuvel says.

“I always thought I was going to go a lot further with cricket but it got to the stage where I grew out of it. I decided I’d tell my cricket club I’d have one crack at footy, that I’d do a proper pre-season. I didn’t do a full pre-season until I was 19 or 20.’’

In 2019, he came through quickly with the Ballarat Swans under the coaching of Joe Carmody.

Carmody remembers a “pretty raw kid’’ and an outstanding prospect.

“Because he played cricket, he didn’t go through the Rebels footy program or anything like that, so once he focused on footy … with his height and his athletic attributes, he was something special,’’ he says.

“You could see his talent for intercept marking. We developed him in that key back role and put him on some pretty handy forwards, and he was holding his own. Eventually, he went from being a lockdown defender to more attacking, coming off his opponent and marking.’’

Alerted to Van De Heuvel by Bulldogs AFL assistant coach and Ballarat local Chris Maple, Footscray came calling ahead of the 2021 season.

He made the list. And he quickly made an impression with his marking, taking a series of contested grabs in his second game, under lights at Frankston.

In a season eventually shut down because of Covid, Van De Heuvel played six games.

Last year, he became a regular selection until he hurt a shoulder and missed the best part of three months.

He felt he was making good progress. But the driving became a drag.

“It took its toll in the end,’’ Van De Heuvel says.

A return to the Ballarat Swans beckoned but instead, his chance meeting with O’Bree led him to Geelong, a strong season and now hopes of being drafted.

“I don’t think I started the year all that well and the middle wasn’t all that great, but I guess I finished it pretty well and came good at the right time,’’ Van De Heuvel says.

His “one-wood’’, he says, is his marking.

Recruiters agree. “Best set of hands in the VFL,’’ one scout says.

Carmody has followed Van De Heuvel’s season with the Cats. As he sees it, a lack of key defenders in the draft may push his former charge into contention.

“He probably puts his hand up for a role the clubs like, being able to defend and then impact as well,’’ he says.

Whatever happens, Van De Heuvel says he’s happy he made the move to Geelong, thinking his journey this year has been “anything but normal’’.

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He likes playing under Corrigan.

“He says to play to your strengths and go out and play with freedom, don’t try to be anything you’re not.

“He gave a lot of honest feedback, which helped my game. So that’s what I did, tried to play to my strengths and see where it takes me.’’