Two weeks ago, Isaac Conway became a casualty of the Werribee Tigers’ new-found depth.
It was almost unthinkable that a VFL team of the year member and third placegetter in last year’s club best-and-fairest could find himself in the development league, but that is the new reality at Werribee since moving to a full alignment with North Melbourne.
The 20-year-old has taken his demotion on the chin, gone back to the development league and worked at ironing out a minor flaw in his game.
Conway is adamant the extra competition for places in the senior team will only benefit him and the rest of the VFL-listed Werribee players.
“Having 16-plus North Melbourne blokes in the side each week, if you can sneak into the team and play good footy, it’s putting you in good stead in the eyes of the recruiters,” he told Star Weekly.
Conway was a super acquisition for Werribee last season.
Hard as a cat’s head, he is willing to throw his body into heavy traffic to feed his teammates on the outside.
He is also a tackling machine, which stems from his background in rugby as a teenager at Nudgee College in Queensland.
But Conway’s game is judged to the nth degree by Tigers coach John Lamont – as it needs to be if he wants to make the necessary improvements to get back into the AFL system. The former Brisbane Lions rookie was called out in his video edits for his work in transition, which Lamont felt had dropped away.
It’s nit-picky, but the calibre of players on North Melbourne’s list allows for selectors to be ruthless. Otherwise, Conway has hardly put a foot wrong in his time Werribee.
You do not get named in the starting 18 of the VFL’s team of the year unless you are hitting most of the right notes.
Conway immediately felt wanted the first time he set foot at Watton Street.
“The club welcomed me in and made me feel comfortable,” he said.
“I found that good balance with work and football and that transpired into having a pretty good year on the track.”
Conway has warmed to the Melbourne lifestyle.
The Queenslander is set up with girlfriend Eliza in inner city Brunswick, a short tram ride to the heart of town.
An avid rugby fan, he occasionally gets to AAMI Park to watch the two rugby codes, though not too many of his teammates are converts yet.
“I don’t think too many of the boys know too much about it,” he said with a laugh.
Conway was a talented outside centre growing up, but he was always better at Aussie rules.
He captained Queensland at under-16 and under-18 level before he was rookie-listed by the Brisbane Lions after impressing with Aspley in the NEAFL competition.
Conway, a second-year apprentice electrician with MKS Electrical Group, still dreams of getting back into the AFL system.
“Time is on my side,” he said.
“I’m pretty hungry to play good footy and get back into the senior side, keep developing and maybe one day get picked up. It’s one step at a time and we’ve set the bar pretty high as a team this year.”
