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This week, collingwoodfc.com.au spoke to livewire wingman Damien Adkins who made became a favourite of supporters with his daring play in 2000 during his debut season. After finishing his 54 game career with the West Coast Eagles, Adkins now works in real estate for Colliers International and still gets a kick for Meeniyan Dumbalk United in the Alberton Football League in the South Gippsland region.
On the country kid who arrived at Victoria Park at the age of 17…
“I think, to be honest, being a country kid at the time, it was a quite a daunting feeling coming to a club with such a huge history and having people like Tony Shaw as your coach and at that stage you still had Damian Monkhorst, Gavin Crosisca, Gavin Brown and all these heroes of the game. It certainly was a daunting process. I wouldn’t say I had an outstanding year. I got towards the end of the year and played a few good games and then they were considering playing me but, it’s funny to say, I was only 68-70kgs. I remember Tony Shaw pulling me aside at the end of the year and saying “mate, we were really close to playing you a couple of times but to be honest we were just concerned about the size of your body. You would have got killed out there at times!”, so I remember having a bit of a laugh at the end of the year about that. “
On his 22 possessions and two goals on debut against Hawthorn…
“I guess when it’s your first game you don’t have fears. Guys probably think the same now; you’ve got nothing to lose. That was probably my take initially. I had a lot of support around me at the time with Scotty Burns, Licuria and Buckley and the calibre of those guys. It was ‘you’ve got nothing to lose, have a crack’. I was assigned to Crawford and didn’t play a tagging role but I was to play on and watch him, which was a challenge in itself. My first kick was a blur even though it was a goal. I remember looking going through the tapes after the first game and it was quite a surreal feeling watching your first game unfold.”
On his move to the West Coast Eagles after 22 games for Collingwood…
“I’ll be pretty honest, looking back I wish I hadn’t have made the decision that I made. It was pretty much one where I sat down with my manager at the end of the year and had a chat to him and just thought that I needed an opportunity elsewhere. I saw opportunity at a couple of clubs and there were a few that we’d been speaking to. Looking back on the game against West Coast traveling through the year I had a good game and that was an influence on my decision. I think I look back now and I think it was a bit of a naïve decision at the time. I was close to playing in a Grand Final and I was still only 21 or 22 at the time. In hindsight, you probably would have stuck it out. I was being offered another contract at Collingwood. There was an opportunity to stay there but in my head I was sort of thinking I needed a fresh start.”
Damien Adkins marks against Richmond in round 10, 2000; has his portrait taken at Victoria Park in 2001; tackles West Coast ruckman Laurie Bellotti in a practice match at Victoria Park in 2000.
On being an emergency for the 2005 Grand Final and coming within an inch of playing for the Eagles against Sydney…
DA: I was very close. It was actually Travis Gaspar that got the call up. We both went over there to Melbourne not knowing and were told to train as if we were playing. Even the night before we still hadn’t found out whether we were playing or not. It was up in the air. Then on the day of the game, they came into our room and said ‘this is what we’re leaning towards’ thinking that they would go with an extra tall but we’ll wait until we get to the game. It put that put the thought in my head that I’m probably not going to play but you never know. I even went out and actually did the warm up for the game and did everything with them as if I was playing and then they came up to me and told me they were going to go with the extra tall. Pretty tough. That was probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to deal with in football.
On life after the bright lights of the AFL…
I’m still playing footy. For the last three or four years I’ve been heading back home where I played all my junior football. There’s about six or eight of us who travel down on the weekend down there to play for Meeniyan Dumbalk United. This year will probably see me out, I’m 31. Professionally, I’m in real estate in commercial property so I’ve been doing that for about the last four years. I’m now working with Colliers International, they’re a multinational company and they’re well known in the commercial real estate industry.
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