First-round prospects, bolters and young guns with familiar surnames seem to be exclusively celebrated at this time of the year ahead of the AFL draft.
Harry Lemmey doesn’t fit into any of those three categories. By his own admission, he’s a slider.
This is a draft year story of rotten luck and the traps of buying into expectations – both external and internal – for young athletes. But it’s also one of determination from an impressive young man with ample upside and a bold, unwavering goal to play 250 AFL games.
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“I’m not sure what will happen come draft time, but I think clubs should know that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there,” Lemmey told foxfooty.com.au.
“I feel like throughout this whole age group, I’m one of the most driven and motivated people.”
An AFL Academy member, Lemmey entered his 2022 campaign as arguably the top key-position prospect of this year’s draft class. He’d had a taste of SANFL league action in 2021 and rated above average for both marks and forward 50 marks among key forwards across his seven SANFL 18’s matches.
An athletic 199cm forward from West Adelaide with a terrific skillset, Lemmey was being mentioned in the same breath as Will Ashcroft, George Wardlaw and Elijah Tsatas.
He was in the Pick 1 conversation in March, according to recruiters. And Lemmey, who already had “high expectations on myself”, was well aware of that chatter.
Seven tough months later and Lemmey is now considered by recruiters as a late national draft prospect at best.
Asked if it was the internal or external expectations he felt most burdened by in 2022, Lemmey said: “A bit of both.
“You definitely feel it out on the footy field. You go from just playing footy to everyone knows your name and everyone‘s calling you out when you’re having set-shots and you’re not going as well.”
COPING WITH EXPECTATIONS
Recruiters, at first, gave Lemmey the benefit of the doubt, putting his slow start to the year down to a lack of continuity.
He’d missed Rounds 1 and 3 of the SANFL league season due to health and safety protocols, booting two goals from nine disposals and five marks against Central District in between. He then didn’t play in Round 4 against Norwood as he was a travelling emergency, returned in Round 5 to finish goalless from two disposals then was played in the reserves a week later where he kicked 0.1 from nine disposals. Multiple protocols-related absences also sidelined him from several training sessions during that six-week slog.
Lemmey built some momentum ahead of South Australia’s national Under 18 championships. He kicked 2.4 from 15 disposals and 10 marks in a reserves game against the Eagles in late May then followed up with 6.0 from 18 disposals and 10 marks in a SANFL Under 18s match against Central District.
The champs, though, didn’t go Lemmey’s way.
He booted 1.1 and averaged five disposals and one mark from three games. In one match against Vic Metro, he started forward but couldn’t get his hands on the ball, prompting coach Tony Bamford to throw Lemmey into the ruck for the third quarter then into the backline for the fourth – just to try and get him involved in the game.
Meanwhile, Victorian prospects Aaron Cadman and Matt Jefferson put together stunning carnival campaigns – so good they overtook Lemmey as the best key-position forward prospects.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs for sure. I think this year there were very big expectations on me, especially from myself – which is all good. You learn from your moments that you have throughout the year,” he said.
“I think the negatives you learn the most from … you find ways to implement the lessons into your game to make you a better footballer and a better person as well.”
Asked what his biggest take-out from his rollercoaster 2022 season had been, Lemmey said “playing in the moment” and “not getting too caught up” in what others think.
“I think there‘s plenty of times where things weren’t going my way and I was almost getting lost in my head,” he said.
“The best thing that I learned this year – and I got external help – was to just live in the moment, try not to think about everything else and expectations. Once you cross onto the footy field, you do your role for your team and the best you can.
“I couldn’t really name one specific person that’s helped me (in that space). It’s more been the whole collective, 10 or 12 people, that I’ve been able to reach out to and get their advice.
“There‘s plenty of things like getting drafted and whatnot, but just control what you can control. So stuff like your diet, what are you doing with the training and if you’re going to do the extras. Whether it’s going down to the beach for 20 minutes and getting in the water and moving around – all those little things have helped me throughout the year.”
LATE-SEASON SURGE
Upon reflection, Lemmey believes that move by the SA coaching staff to put him into defence for one quarter against Vic Metro helped him deliver a stronger finish to his season.
Lemmey went back to West Adelaide and played the last three games of the Under 18s season in defence with the odd stint in the ruck. It paid dividends, averaging 16 disposals and nine marks, while also sneaking forward to kick a goal in each of his last two matches.
He was then elevated to West Adelaide’s reserves side for its semi-final and preliminary final and returned to the forward line, kicking 3.3 and averaging 10 disposals across the two games.
“There‘s been plenty of things that haven’t gone my way, but it’s how I’ve overcome them,” Lemmey said.
“Obviously my champs didn‘t go exactly how I would have liked them to go, but I think it’s how I’ve bounced back from my experiences that I had in those championships and applied that to my last five or six games of the year.
“Playing centre half-back was really good to show clubs that I can play both sides of the field, because I knew I did have that in my book – because I played a little bit there as a 15 and 16-year-old – and it just hadn‘t come out yet.”
Despite Lemmey’s topsy-turvy campaign and slide down many club draft boards, he said recruiters had remained “relatively consistent of what is required from me to get to the AFL level” during interviews.
“I’ve got big goals. I really want to be a 250-game AFL player and they’ve been really helpful for me to be able to identify what I need to do to be able to get to that stage,” he said.
DROPPING THE KOOKABURRA FOR THE SHERRIN
As a 15-year-old, Lemmey declared he wanted to be a professional athlete. He just hadn’t decided whether that’d be as a footballer or cricketer.
He could’ve easily gone down the cricket route.
Lemmey was a talented fast bowler who was among Sturt’s youngest ever grade cricket debutants and opened the bowling for a Cricket Australia XI – a team of the country’s best 15-year-olds – coached by ex-Test players Chris Rogers and Ryan Harris in 2019.
He reckons he “maxed out” at 130km/hr once when the speed gun was on him.
“That wasn’t too bad for a 16 or 17-year-old,” he said with a laugh.
Lemmey for several years wanted to keep playing both sports at the highest level possible for as long as possible. But like all gun dual-sports athletes, he had to focus on one eventually.
“I was really happy when I made the decision to choose footy,” he said.
“Opportunity is the first reason that comes to mind. There was a lot of different factors, but I think the first one was as a South Australian, Redbacks bowlers are debuting by 21 or 22 or 23 years old – and my original thought was ‘if my AFL career goes perfectly as I would like it to go, that‘s almost 100 AFL games by that time’ – which is a lot when you think about it.”
But the fact Lemmey kept his options open for so long meant a lot of hours spent not only in the nets and on the footy training track, but also in the car driving from session to session.
Lemmey said he has dreams to be central to “big moments” in AFL games. But paying back his parents with strong on-field performances is just as significant a motivating factor behind his desire to be an AFL player.
“I think of everyone that has sacrificed for me to get me to where I am. Mum and Dad have done a lot for me, all my friends and family – I couldn‘t thank them enough for what they’ve done,” he said.
“I feel like I sort of owe it to them. They‘ve done so much for me and it’s time to give back – and hopefully, the results pay off.
“With footy and cricket, Mum and Dad have been taking me everywhere. From Auskick as a five-year-old to every training session three nights a week – and if I’m doing other stuff as well, they’d drive me around.”
ANXIOUS WAIT LOOMS
Lemmey says one of the most nerve-racking nights he’s ever experienced was Christmas Eve last year, knowing that at 6.30am the next day he’d be meeting West Adelaide graduate turned Adelaide Crows forward Riley Thilthorpe to run 100 100m sprints.
But that nervous night might be topped in late November ahead of the national draft.
Lemmey, ultimately, doesn’t care which club he ends up at. The day he declared he wanted to be a professional athlete was the day he began mentally preparing for a career outside of South Australia, particularly from a footy perspective considering only two of the 18 AFL clubs are based in the state.
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It emerged last week Richmond was keen to secure a tall forward with at least one of its two late selections (Picks 53 and 63) in the draft. Lemmey, along with West Adelaide teammate Tom Scully, could be in that mix.
But for the Blackwood Football Club product, any AFL colours will be good colours.
“If it’s Pick 1 or the last pick in the rookie draft, I’m going to do whatever it takes to become a successful player,” he said.
