Treloar ready for grand final feast
The Age
Friday September 25, 2009
ADAM Treloar would like to meet anyone who believes they must surely be having the world's busiest grand final week. He has his own case to push.Today, Treloar will play for the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup grand final against the Calder Cannons. Tomorrow morning he'll be at the MCG, to represent Vic Country in the national under-16 grand final against the South Australians.It won't end there, either: on Sunday, the promising midfielder will fly to Canberra for the first of four camps with the latest AIS-AFL Academy intake.Last week, Treloar, promoted into the Dandenong side last month, worried that he would have to make a choice between his two teams €” and two huge games €” should Dandenong make its way through to today's decider.He'll play about a half against the Cannons today, head straight from the game to meet his Country teammates at their hotel and, after what he imagines will be a sleepless night, play another half in the under-16 game."I was getting really worried about it, because I didn't know what the rules were and I thought I'd only be able to play once," said Treloar, whose mind was eased by the Stingrays coach, Graeme Yeats. "He came up to me last week and said: 'You're allowed to play in the grand final if we make it,' and that was really good because it was playing on my mind and I couldn't even train properly."After he said that it took a big load off my shoulders, and now I'm just so excited. I wouldn't have known which to choose."Treloar played under coach Nathan Buckley during the preliminary under-16 rounds in July, and said while he had initially felt in awe of Collingwood's coach-in-waiting, Buckley had taught him how to feel confident in his ability and how important it was to train on his non-preferred left foot.Both things, he said, had helped him, in his first games for the Stingrays. "In my first game I can say I was clueless. I didn't know what I was doing because it was faster and so hard, but as I've played more games and trained I've gotten a lot more used to it," he said.Tom Scully, the No. 1 draft pick in-waiting, has been named in the Stingrays team but will almost certainly miss, having had an operation on his knee on Tuesday.
© 2009 The Age