Tom Hickey, son of a former top-level Brisbane rugby league player and a former State volleyball representative, has been playing AFL football for all of two years.
Yet at the recent NAB AFL Draft Combine (formerly Draft Camp) at the AIS in Canberra, attended by 100 of the best young players in the country, Hickey stamped himself as a prospect of enormous potential.
The Alexandra Hills 19-year-old ranked second overall in the new ‘clean hands’ test – an outstanding result for any player but more particularly for a ruckman.
Hickey was also the best-performed ruckman in the agility test, and equal second-best among ruckmen in the beep test, measuring endurance.
The NAB AFL Draft Machine on the AFL website ranks Hickey second overall in physical testing results among ruckman behind South Australian Daniel Gorringe, who is widely tipped to be a first-round draft selection.
The Gold Coast SUNS exercised a recruiting option on the 2010 Morningside QAFL premiership team member and State U18 representative after rival club North Melbourne had proposed a trade for him during AFL Trade Week.
Hickey, who stands 201.4cm tall, is looking forward to tapping into the knowledge and experience of prized ruck signing Josh Fraser from Collingwood.
He will join his Queensland U18 captain and fellow zone selection Joel Wilkinson at the Suns. And, like Wilkinson, a convert from track and field, is another example of an athlete from another sport who fell in love with AFL after an almost accidental beginning.
It was October 2008. Hickey, a State Schoolboys volleyball representative and all-round sporting fanatic, joined a bunch of mates in playing football for Iona College in the Queensland Independent Schools competition.
As he recalls, he turned out against Villanova, St.Peter’s, St Lawrence’s and Marist College Ashgrove.
“We were just a few blokes having some fun. Other than the small minority who had played seriously for a long time, we had no idea,” he said.
But Hickey says there was something special about those four games of school football that captivated him.
“I loved the team environment,” he said. “And it was great to be back playing a contact sport … playing footy. It really whetted my appetite and I’ve loved it ever since.”
Two years ago he didn’t dream of playing at AFL level. But from the moment early this year he heard he was on the radar of AFL scouts, even if only mildly so, it became an obsession.
“I just put my head down and trained as hard as I could to try to make it a reality,” he said. “I’ve had the best year and for it to end this year, being picked up by the Gold Coast, is incredible. It means everything to me.
“I love the fact that it’s a real team sport and no matter how good any one individual is you need the entire team performing well to be successful.”
“It was a great day,” he said. “I had goose bumps from the time we went out onto the ground for the pre-game warm-up, through the national anthem, and then to the first bounce.
“It was the best way to win a game. When you spend all year with the boys and you get to win like that in the last 15 minutes it’s pretty special. You watch everyone’s belief grow as things started to fall into place … fantastic.
“I took a lot of confidence out of that one quarter but it didn’t really alter my belief. I knew if someone would give me a chance I wouldn’t let them down … I just had to be given a chance. I’m just so excited to be given an opportunity.”
Hickey made his senior QAFL debut for Morningside in Round 8 this year, and played a total of 13 senior games, including the last 11 in a row. And he finished third overall in the NAB QAFL Rising Star Award.
It’s all been part of a dream says the 19-year-old apprentice electrician, who lives at Alexandra Hills with parents Mick and Anne, and 21-year-old sister Chloe.
“Ever since I was about four I’ve wanted to be a professional sportsman … at first it was rugby league, then it was anything it could be and now it’s AFL. I just want to get myself an opportunity to be the best I can and to make a profession out of it.”
