Once a week, Melbourne midfielder Angus Brayshaw puts on a suit.
He strides through the city to the Evans and Partners office in Collins Street to put in a day’s work in the financial world.
Five years after a hole in one at Royal Melbourne, Angus Brayshaw wants a flag.Credit: Getty Images
The commerce graduate loves stepping into that business environment, immersing himself with professionals in a field other than football.
For the rest of the week, if not having a hit of golf, reading or hanging out with friends and his fiancee, Danielle, he puts on the red and blue colours and devotes himself to performing whatever task he is assigned at Melbourne.
Brayshaw is not exactly Clark Kent, but he says putting his mind to a variety of things makes him a better footballer, partner, employee and, he jokes, most importantly a better golfer.
“I love football and I want to be the best footballer I can be, but I guess I am a bit older now, and I have just figured that what works best for me is having a balanced life,” Brayshaw said.
“If football is the only thing in your life, and it’s just my opinion, [then] if you play a bad game or get dropped or lose, then that is 100 per cent of your life, and then you are just riding these huge waves.”
Celebrating a Melbourne flag with a grand final win at the MCG is driving the Demons.Credit: Getty Images
Brayshaw can be a big wave rider as he showed with his outstanding game in the 2021 grand final.
If he was a surfer he could perform in any conditions on any board and leading with either foot as he kicks with both and has played every position bar ruck since he made his debut with the Demons in round one, 2015.
He hasn’t forgotten that time as he prepares to play Collingwood in front of more than 90,000 people at the MCG on Thursday night, having entered a club that had won 10 of its 66 previous matches and part of one finishing top four in the past three seasons.
“At the start of my career we were nowhere, or nowhere near it, and having these opportunities is not something that I take very lightly at all,” Brayshaw said.
He is a leader at Melbourne, providing brilliant support to Max Gawn and Jack Viney and looming as a candidate to be the club’s next skipper despite being the last one to push that barrow.
“[Max] is doing a great job and has got miles in the tank,” Brayshaw said. “A few leaders at the club, myself, Trac [Christian Petracca] and Alex Neal-Bullen got drafted when we were in a really poor position as a club. We were building, but we were still down the ladder so without at all needing a title it’s something I am really proud of.
“We have come and built the club into something bigger than what we found it. If you just put that on my resume when I leave, whenever that might be then, captain or not, vice captain or not, as a Melbourne person, and leader at the Melbourne Football Club to say I left it in a better position is something I am really proud of.”
Another flag or two would be nice too, particularly given the drought-breaking 2021 flag, as good as it was for Melbourne fans, was played at Optus Stadium rather than the MCG. Brayshaw is aware how significant that fact is to fans.
Angus Brayshaw and Alex Neal-Bullen.Credit: AFL Photos
“You see supporters down the street and they have all got a story about their premiership experience, and it always finishes off with something to do with COVID and how much that sucked and then there is something in the end about how desperate they are to see [a flag] themselves live,” Brayshaw said.
Not that he dwells on that reality. Life outside of football ensures that. It was during COVID that Brayshaw rediscovered his love of reading, the activity lying dormant because of the prescribed reading that came with being at school and university.
He formed a book club with Tom Sparrow and Ed Langdon in an attempt to read the classics, until, according to Brayshaw, Langdon pushed his alternative credentials one step too far, introducing a book about the Israeli secret service that was long and heavy. “That killed the group,” Brayshaw said.
But it didn’t deaden the enjoyment he gets out of reading. Right now, he is ploughing through Sapiens: A brief history of humankind, his eclectic selection of books meaning little is off limits (unless Langdon recommends it).
“I read whatever. A good book is a good book as far as I am concerned,” Brayshaw said.
His golf is an even greater passion, as anyone who has asked him about the hole in one he scored in 2018 at his club, Royal Melbourne, will know.
“April 26,” Brayshaw fires back when it’s mentioned.
“If I ever get another one … I was 22 at the time and we had training the next day so I was pretty tame but I said to Goody [the coach Simon Goodwin] a couple of months ago if I ever get another hole in one I’m not liable, so hopefully it doesn’t come before the game on Thursday because that will be a tough choice.”
He’s not serious, of course, but the comment reveals his dry humour, quips often delivered with an enthusiastic rub of his face, movement of his head and gesticulation of his quick hands.
It makes him engaging and down to earth, a player clearly grounded in the real world but giving everything to winning a flag, improving his golf game, being a good partner and friend.
“The real world, hey, it’s a different place … you don’t really know until you have lived in this environment how the nuances, the intricacies and the ups and downs and everything, so it is pretty insular over here, and you can easily get caught up in some things that are pretty insignificant,” Brayshaw said.
“I get to come in [to the office] once a week and get a healthy, healthy dose of what is important in my life. Obviously, I am learning about financial markets and other stuff, which I am grateful for but the biggest thing for me is the awesome perspective I get about how lucky I am to be able to kick a footy around with my mates … of course, it’s a bit harder than that, I wish it was that simple sometimes.”
On Thursday, Brayshaw’s suit will be footy boots, shorts and a jumper bearing No.10. Melbourne will be getting the best of Angus Brayshaw.
“What works best for me is having a balanced life where football is absolutely a big part of that, but if I just played football and then went home and did nothing I would be 100 per cent worse off with my mental health because I would be twiddling my thumbs doing nothing and I would be a worse footballer because I would be overthinking,” Brayshaw said.
