Top year for rising star

By Paul Pickering
LIFE moves fast when you’re a teenager – just ask Dandenong’s Adam Treloar.
Six months ago, Treloar was just another footy-mad kid, playing with his mates at Noble Park and dreaming of one day emulating his idol, Chris Judd.
One whirlwind season later, that dream doesn’t seem so far away.
Treloar, 16, broke into the Dandenong Stingrays TAC Cup under-18 side this season, playing six games, including the grand final loss to Calder a fortnight ago.
He backed up in the final of the AFL Under-16 Championships the next morning, leading Vic Country to a 50-point win over South Australia at Visy Park.
The classy midfielder/half-back was among his side’s best players in the final and was later named alongside West Australian Tom Mitchell as the premier players in the Division One carnival – recipients of the Kevin Sheehan Medal.
As if that wasn’t enough for one kid to take in, Treloar jetted out for Canberra the following day for his induction into the AIS-AFL Academy.
So yes, it has been “a massive year”, as Treloar put it last Friday.
“I’m in awe of all of this,” he reflected on his list of recent achievements.
It’s a testament to Treloar’s resilience that he played in both grand finals. He could easily have bypassed the TAC Cup decider, knowing that he has two full seasons at that level ahead of him.
He carried the disappointment of that loss – and a corked thigh – into the Saturday game, but the pain was short-lived.
“I’d never won a grand final before, so it was a pretty surreal feeling,” he beamed.
“I also won it with one of my closest mates, Piva (Wright, Noble Park team-mate).
“He’d never won one either and we’d been through all our junior footy together.”
The humble teenager said he was in “complete shock” at receiving the prestigious Sheehan Medal, and he quickly sought some advice from a previous winner in Stingrays’ team-mate Tom Scully.
“He said, ‘you should be very proud of it, but footy’s never about individual success’,” Treloar recalled, before admitting that he had thought about the consequences of being a Sheehan medallist.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of pressure on me now.”
Treloar is uncomfortable with his increasing notoriety. He was baffled when one of the Calder players approached him on the ground after the TAC grand final to wish him luck for the following day.
“I thought: ‘Wow, how does this guy know me?’,” he explained.
“I still see myself as a little kid, kicking the footy with my brother in the backyard.”
That sudden loss of anonymity was the subject of conversation when Treloar met his new AIS-AFL Academy mentor, Matthew Lloyd, last week.
The former Essendon spearhead told him to make sure that he surrounds himself with positive people. The academy, with high performance coach Jason McCartney at the helm, is a good start.
Treloar will join fellow Stingrays Luke Parker and Dylan Shiel in the elite junior program, which will culminate in a trip to South Africa next year.
His next trip to Canberra is in November, so Treloar will now finally have some time to sit back and reflect on his breakthrough season.