By Nicholas Creely
Myles Poholke is the kind of footballer that all teams love to have and all opposition clubs despise playing against.
And the 18-year-old Sorrento product, in just a week, will be beginning his new life as an AFL footballer, and couldn’t be more excited.
But, at the same time, he is anxious about where the road may lead.
“The nerves are starting to creep in – my brother, who is my boss, always jokes that in a couple of weeks I’ll be on the other side of Australia,” he said.
“I think about moving interstate a little bit, my mates constantly bring it up, and they say they want me to go to St Kilda because it’s the closest club, but I sort of look forward to the fresh start of moving away and getting to know some new people, and I think if I was to go interstate, I wouldn’t have any dramas.”
Poholke enjoyed a standout season, representing not just the Dandenong Stingrays, where he won the Best and Fairest award, but he also represented Vic Country and the AFL Academy.
“Personally, my first half of the year wasn’t that great.
“The stats were there but the impact wasn’t, and I was really keen to get into the national champs and pick up my form, which I was able to do,” he said.
“I think anytime you get to pull on the big V it’s really humbling.
“Obviously getting the opportunity last year was great – this year was really good to sort of be one of the more experienced players and sort of take charge of the blokes who hadn’t been there before.
“The results weren’t great, but I enjoyed pulling on the jumper.
“It was a massive surprise, to be honest. A few people actually joked about it early on, but I thought it was pretty farfetched to play all this rep footy.
“There was players like Will Brodie and what-not, but I definitely saw it as a massive step up for me and an eye-opener into how high I could make it and how highly rated I actually was at that time.”
Poholke prides himself on loyalty which is an attribute he believes was shaped back in his junior days, but also paid tribute to his brother Leigh, who has been a magnificent influence on his life.
“I played my entire junior footy down at Sorrento football club, which I’ve loved,” he said.
“My brother has been my main influence. I lost contact with my dad some years ago and my brother sort of took on that father figure role and I still remember him teaching me how to kick. He coached me at junior level and we won a flag together.
“I owe a lot to him.”
With football in hand, Poholke plays with intensity and believes he can influence through the midfield at any AFL club.
“I see myself at AFL level as playing a midfield-forward role but, obviously, in the first couple of years, if I’m lucky enough to get a game, I’ll play wherever I’m instructed to,” he said.
“But, eventually, I’d love to become more of a midfielder who floats forward.
“I sort of model my game a little bit on Luke Parker, and just how he goes inside and out, hits the scoreboard and has elite overhead marking. I like to think we have similar strengths.”
But a knock on his game has always been his fitness, something Poholke believes he has overcome, and in a way, turned into one of his greatest strengths.
“My first interview was actually up on the Gold Coast and I got a bit of a clip on not working hard enough and that my fitness was poor,” he said.
“Mostly clubs pointed out my fitness, but I tested well at the combine, and I now feel I’ve got that out of their minds.”
