The journey to becoming the best current midfielder in the competition started with a meeting early in the 2022 season.
Luke Davies-Uniacke had to that point shown glimpses of the potential that saw him drafted with pick No.4 in 2017, but his four-and-a-half years in the AFL system were yet to deliver that ‘penny drop’ moment.
Determined to realise his destiny, ‘LDU’ sat down with North Melbourne midfield coach Jordan Russell and made the pitch.
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“I think last year I was playing probably a 60-40 role from forward to midfield and it just wasn’t working,” Davies-Uniacke told foxfooty.com.au this month.
“I remember I sat down with my line coach Jordan Russell and said ‘Look mate, I want to verse the best, I want to not play full forward basically because I’m a bit of a witches hat down there.’
“From then onwards, the coaches have backed me in and so have my teammates.”
Russell remembers it well.
“He pretty much just came and said he wasn’t sure why he was forward, he felt like his talent and skillset was better suited to the midfield and he wanted to help the team by getting in there and playing more inside,” Russell recalled to foxfooty.com.au this week.
“We had the conversation, it was honest and open and we thought ‘Alright, let’s give it a go and see what happens.’
“Having only worked with him for two-and-a-half years since I’ve been at the club, I hadn’t seen his junior stuff … I knew there was a lot of talent there and that it was a little bit of the iceberg where there was a lot of talent underneath that was waiting to come through.”
The AFL world has spent the past 12 months realising just how deep that iceberg runs.
He’d managed 38 disposals against Richmond in Round 21 of 2021, but that was the only time the Haileybury College product had cracked the 30-disposal mark in the first 61 games of his senior career.
In Round 13, 2022 against Greater Western Sydney, Davies-Uniacke broke through that barrier for the second time.
He’d do so another eight times in his next 12 games, including his most recent 30-disposal effort against Carlton on Good Friday.
The differences between his first 57 matches and last 17 are stark.
What was once a midfield-forward mix of 69% and 31% is now 90 and 10.
His AFL Player Ratings are up 47%, disposals 31%, contested possessions 36%, clearances 77% and score involvements 20%.
It’s 10 months since that initial eye-catching performance against the Giants and Davies-Uniacke has only gotten better.
He’ll enter Round 5 averaging the second-most contested possessions in the competition as well as the fifth-most clearances.
While he may not have starred as quickly as other members of the 2017 draft class, Davies-Uniacke didn’t feel too much of the external pressure to perform and live up to his clear potential.
“I didn’t feel too much weight on my shoulders. I think I was one of the earliest picks in a long time so there were sort of expectations around that,” he said.
“I obviously had to fight for my spot, I had Ben Cunnington, Shaun Higgins and Ben Jacobs in there too. They were phenomenal, they were superstars for me and for my growth as well. I struggled to squeeze into that side.
“There were a couple of us VFL boys going about our business in there and now we’re in the big time.
“I think just earning my stripes and gaining respect and biding my time, that’s all I can really put it on. I’m thankful to the coaches for backing me in.”
That the coaches at North Melbourne would back Davies-Uniacke in is of little surprise.
As Russell said: “We had to juggle a few things obviously with the balance of the team and that sort of stuff, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t earned our trust; he already had our trust.”
“We thought ‘Let’s give him a full crack in there and see what happens.’ He flourished.”
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Perhaps the scariest part is, at just 23 years of age, he likely has plenty more improvement ahead.
Davies-Uniacke believes that more than anyone, despite so many waxing lyrical about his surge to the top of the AFL pecking order.
“I see the stuff here and there, but I’m more concerned about how the team is going to be honest,” he said.
“I’m more worried about getting these wins, I’m sick of getting these Ls and as a group we’re sick of getting these Ls.
“It is humbling to see some stuff going around but I try not to look at it.
“There’s definitely still growth. I’m definitely not at my peak. I’m starting to get a tag, so I’ve got to start to work my way around that now.”
Like most of the competition’s upper echelon, Davies-Uniacke’s commitment to his craft goes well beyond training and match day.
“There are certainly players at other clubs that do this as well, but he spends a lot of time looking at other midfielders in his own time, looking at how they run, what they do at stoppages,” Russell said.
“Not because he wants to steal all their ideas, but more because he’s just genuinely interested in how the best players play … I don’t think many people would talk to him and think he’s a bit of a footy nerd, he’s not but he wants to get better.
“He does extra work now which he probably isn’t do a couple of years ago when I first arrived. He thinks about it more than what a lot of people give him credit for.”
Davies-Uniacke’s form is made all the more impressive when considering the sheer lack of success the side has enjoyed in his time there so far; of his 74 games, North Melbourne has won 18.
With his contracted extended at the end of last year until at least the end of 2025, he’ll likely prove integral to the side’s future rise back up the ladder and, if he continues to perform at his current level, the accolades will come at a rate of knots.
Whatever his future may hold, however, one aspect is guaranteed.
“I think if there’s one thing you’ll find it’s that he’s not going to pretend to be somebody else, he’ll always be himself,” Russell said.
“Hence why that conversation started 12 to 14 months ago when we sat down and had a chat about it.
“He doesn’t to be someone else, he wants to be Luke Davies-Unicake and that’s why he’ll succeed.”
