When Charlie Constable wasn’t chosen for Victoria Metro’s opening TAC Cup game against Western Australia, he could have easily dropped his bundle.
Instead he used the omission to catapult himself up draft board with a dominant campaign, where he averaged 26.7 disposals over the last three TAC Cup outings.
Amid the uncertainty, Constable – who is the nephew of coaching legend Mick Malthouse – discovered extra motivation that drove him for the rest of the year.
“In the scheme of things earlier in the year, I didn’t know where I stood in the draft,” he said.
“People release their lists and I wasn’t in any of those. I thought I had a pretty good lead up to the carnival, so when I didn’t get picked, I wasn’t dirty, but I wanted to make sure that when I did get my chance, I would make sure I took the most of it and prove a few people wrong.
“I thought I was able to do that.”
Having played most of his junior footy as a defender, the Sandringham Dragons product says he tried to model his game on that of Carlton’s Patrick Cripps when moved he into the midfield this season, while a stint in attack during the national championships was foreign territory.
“I was pretty happy with my consistency all year and playing in a new position in the midfield,” he said.
“I haven’t really played there for a few years, I’ve been at half back and then to finally move up into the midfield when I improved my tank, that brought out the biggest strengths in my game, which are in the contest and being a pretty clean player.
“I hadn’t played forward in my career until the Vic Country game in the champs. Because it’s a new position, you go out there chase the footy and play freely. The leading patterns and what makes it hard for the defender, that probably came through.
“At Dragons playing as a deep forward was a little harder for the leading and having bigger bodies on you all the time. Towards the end of the season, I figured it out a little bit.”
One knock some recruiters have on Constable is his speed, although he clocked 3.05 seconds for the 20 metre sprint during pre-season testing – which is by no means poor.
“Clubs have said spreading from the contest is what I need to work on, but they’ve been positive about it,” Constable said.
“They’ve said if you do have a deficiency, that’s probably the easiest one to fix. They said you have a lot of strengths that covers your speed and your endurance, so it’s not too much of a worry, but I still want to work on it to get it to the next level.
“Last preseason I had a sprint coach for 12 weeks, which shaved my 20-metre time from 3.45 to a 3.06. In terms of my running, I’ve tried to do boxing and swimming during the week – some off legs stuff.”
Constable has been super for Metro. In a game filled with fumbles, he's been ultra clean. #NABAFLU18s
— Brett Anderson (@BAndersonSEN) June 24, 2017
The 191cm midfielder, who looms as a first-round pick, was part of Haileybury’s all-conquering APS premiership team, winning the best and fairest and continually catching the eye of scouts with his ball-winning ability.
He said that it has been a great place to play his footy this season.
“In previous years, we have had good top-end talent, but those guys have prioritized metro footy or Dragons footy over school, and we have never been great,” Constable said.
“This year all our top line players put a massive focus on being really committed to the school side and that came through with our results.”
Leadership and setting the right example for fellow teammates is key according to Constable, who was lauded by former St Kilda champion Nathan Burke (who helped guide Haileybury’s leadership group) for his leadership skills and eagerness to learn.
“Not playing Dragons last year (due to injuries), I was one of the people that used to attend the non-compulsory sessions and I thought it was really important that this year, even though I was playing high level footy, I didn’t just take the approach that I was too good for that,” Constable said.
“I was really keen to get to all the sessions I could to show my face and do some training with everyone to drive home it is really important to me.
“The communication side of it. How well you need to communicate to your coaches and the playing group so everyone is on the same page.
“If you don’t sort of get everyone involved, people are doing their own things and it never really comes together. That was something he identified that we didn’t have over the last few years and this year we definitely did happen.
“A lot goes to him (Burke) for our success this year.”
Constable also credited former champion Essendon forward Matthew Lloyd, who is an assistant coach at Haileybury, as having a big impact on how his game has developed over the past few seasons.
“He has been a great support and has given me a few calls throughout the year just to see how I’m going and how I’m tracking,” Constable said.
“He gives me a little bit of feedback. He is honest and really supportive. He will always give me the feedback of keep backing yourself in. He is really positive and turns any negative I have into a positive. He makes me feel good about myself to keep going, which is really good.”
The Richmond fan said that it was a “very surreal feeling” having clubs come to the family home to interview him – 17 had visited prior to the draft combine (Carlton were the only club not to).
“Early on, it’s that buzz that comes around but then after you have a few, you know what’s it like and you treat it as a job interview,” he said.
“I tried to be as honest as I could and let them know who I am.”
Inside Football Draft profile...
CHARLIE CONSTABLE
18-May-99 | 191.0cm | 86.1kg | Sandringham Dragons
“One of the success stories of the year. We’ve been rapt with how he’s handled himself. He gets up for big games and impacts really well in midfield, or even back and forward – he’s a really hard match-up when he goes forward. There is a bit of a question on how he covers the ground and he’ll need to keep working on that, but he kicks over a line and has elite vision and hands. He’s that traditional footballer that’s hard as nails and prepared to work on his game. He just gets the job done on game day.” – Sandringham Dragons talent manager Ryan O’Connor.
The 2017 Draft Preview issue of SEN Inside Football is out now. It includes 240 prospect profiles, as well as one-on-one interviews with some of this year's top hopefuls. Subscribe today!