Revelation: Tom Mitchell’s bombshell Giants story

Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell has revealed a bombshell story from before he was drafted.

In the lead-up to his draft year, Melbourne-born Mitchell was playing his Under-16 representative footy for Western Australia while his dad, Barry, was an assistant coach at Fremantle.

He was eligible to play for the Sydney Swans as a father/son selection, but that didn’t stop the incoming GWS Giants from throwing their hat in the ring ahead of their foundation year in 2012.

Mitchell, who was eventually taken by the Swans with Pick 21 in the 2011 draft, said the Giants made a serious play for him.

“I’ll tell the story of how I was first drafted and how there was a big decision to make between the Sydney Swans and the GWS Giants,” Mitchell said on AFL Trade Radio’s Trade Mornings.

“So essentially I had a strong Under-16 national carnival for Western Australia and fortunately won the MVP of that carnival. A week later I had two AFL contracts on the table as a 16-year-old from both the Sydney Swans and the GWS Giants.”

Mitchell was a bit too young to have a manager at the time so the clubs made contact with his old man who was an All-Australian and best and fairest winner at the Swans.

“I remember the Swans flew over to my house after the carnival which was in Blacktown in Sydney. I went to a game at the SCG and met Paul Roos and Barry Hall and a number of the players that were going there and I thought, ‘This is pretty cool, how good's this?’,” he recalled.

“Then the Swans flew over and met my family, they offered me a three-year deal. I would have had to wait until I was 18 for that draft. They said, ‘We’re going to take you with our first pick’, which ended up being Pick 21.

“Back then you just had to match the pick of that round, because I was father/son.

“That was the Giants’ first year entering the competition. They offered me a five-year deal. The first two years of the CBA, I think it's three years now, are set. So it essentially would have been $80,000 plus match payments.

“But the money for the remaining three years after that was the most jaw-dropping feeling of my life. It wasn't quite a million dollars, but it wasn't too far away.”

The former Hawthorn and Collingwood midfielder revealed the main reasons why he opted against joining GWS despite the fact he had some close contacts.

“I said no. I said no for the fact that I remember going to tour the Giants and you couldn't really picture what it was going to be,” Mitchell added.

“I went and saw Breakfast Point where all the players would be living. The stadium was being built, there wasn't a training facility. It was hard to picture it, although the money was very enticing.

“I knew I'd have a number of good friends likely to go there. Toby Greene, a great friend of mine, was to be drafted there. Steve Coniglio, I played representative football throughout my juniors with. I would have known a lot of the guys there, but the Swans, I went and toured as well, and you could see the foundation, the club…”

Then came the head-turning pitch from Sydney.

“They did this amazing pitch, which I still pinch myself about today,” Titch said further.

“They took me into the club at night onto the SCG with Adam Goodes, Jarrad McVeigh, Jude Bolton. They played a highlights tape of the Swans and the history of the club on the big screen, and they said, ‘This could be you out here in front of 30 000 people’.

“They gave my younger brother who came along with me a signed jersey from Adam Goodes. So that's what led me to go to the Swans on a lot less money, but just due to the fact that I wanted to live in Sydney and felt comfortable at the club.”

Which leads to the bombshell offer involving his father who was promised the senior coach job at the Giants if Tom chose them.

“The big drawcard from the Giants, which my dad never put any pressure on me in this regard, but they were going to offer him the head coaching job of the Giants as well if I signed there,” he revealed.

“I’ve never told that story.”

Barry, the former Magpies and Carlton on-baller, was deep into his coaching career when the revelation came.

“Well, he was very close at one point in time to being the coach of the Carlton Football Club, and then went over to Hawthorn where he was an assistant coach there when they won the flag in 2008,” Tom said of his old man.

“He went to Fremantle, which is why I was playing for WA and we lived in Perth for three years. I'm sure he did (want to be a senior coach), I never really asked him, but he said this was entirely my decision, take him completely out of it - very selfless from him.

“I’m sure it would have been a consideration from himself, but I decided to go and play for the Sydney Swans.”

And in a roundabout way, Mitchell chose the Swans for family legacy reasons.

“I think I was always leaning towards the Swans due to the family connection,” he admitted.

“But it was a tough decision to, at that age, walk away from that amount of money. And maybe in hindsight, I should have gone to the Giants because I really struggled to get selected in the team early days at the Swans.

“I played a lot of reserves football. There was a lot of times I felt I should have been playing AFL football more often and it didn't go my way.

“Hindsight's a beautiful thing, but I eventually cracked into the team, had some amazing times at the Swans, made some great friends, played in the 2016 Grand Final which was an unbelievable experience and then ultimately left for Hawthorn.

“A crazy experience to go through as a 16-year-old.”