The Larrikin Transformed Into A Leader

The Age

Thursday February 16, 2006

LYALL JOHNSON

Cameron Mooney might have numerous "brain explosions" on the field, but off it, Lyall Johnson discovers a private man of insight

LATE last season, with pressure mounting on Geelong as it endured a four-game losing streak and threatened to slip out of finals contention, Cameron Mooney sauntered up to Mark Thompson and his coaching staff and, with a wry grin, invited them out to lunch.

"You look like you could do with some cheering up," Mooney suggested. "I'm paying."

The group headed off to the Cats bistro and spent a light-hearted hour or so discussing just about everything - except football.

The memory puts a glint in Thompson's eye as he recalls that it indeed lifted the spirits of the coaching staff but, more than anything, gives an insight into the intuitive side of the tough Geelong big man that few know.

Undoubtedly, most people think they know what Mooney is like because of what he does on the field - his fierce charges at the ball, his sometimes-reckless attack on opponents, his almost comical "brain explosions" when umpiring decisions don't go his way. His long curly hair only adds to the illusion of a wild man on the edge, a man who lives for the moment.

But those who do know Mooney understand that those impressions are misleading.

Thompson, who brought the young tearaway with him from the Kangaroos at the end of 1999 when he moved to the senior position at Kardinia Park, is as much mate as coach to Mooney. When Thompson speaks about him you can sense genuine affection.

Indeed, he sounds like a proud father marvelling at the way his youngster continues to grow and develop before his eyes.

Anyone who has seen Mooney play football knows he wears his heart on his sleeve, but those who know him understand that much of this is because he is a highly emotional and sensitive character.

"(He's an) intelligent and affectionate sort of a guy, really infectious," Thompson said. "People really like him. I think generally our players really like him and I know our supporters really do when his real attack is on the ball.

"Yeah, I like him. Cam was hard work early and he has changed. And I love what I'm seeing now and I think he is a better person and I think he is happy with himself."

Thompson is a firm believer in young players taking responsibility for their destiny. It is hardly surprising then that Mooney believes that when he took "a good hard look" at himself at the end of 2003 he not only saved his career but strengthened his relationship with Thompson.

"At the end of 2003 I sat down and realised I was on the verge of the scrapheap - the club was telling me and my family was telling me," Mooney said.

"I'd buggered my ankle in a pre-season game but I kept playing on it and playing on it instead of fixing it and things just went pear-shaped. I was walking around thinking it was everyone else's fault and not mine. I had words with Bomber and, yeah, I was pretty much just walking around with my head up my arse as things just fizzled out around me."

What saved his career was the realisation that he had nothing else to fall back on. He would have become, in his words, "a bum". Moreover, he realised if that happened he would have no one to blame but himself.

"I realised then just how important football is to me and that it was all up to me," he said.

Mooney's epiphany led to an improved diet, a drop in weight, a limit (but not an end) to partying and drinking with his girlfriend and mates and a much-improved season in 2004, when he dominated for almost half the year in the ruck. He then played possibly the best games of his career late last season and into the finals series before the Cats bowed out in the semi-final to Sydney.

Partly in recognition of his changed ways, but just as much for his combination larrikin and thinker who is not afraid to articulate the hard issues, Mooney this year was elevated to Geelong's leadership group. It's a position he never imagined, in the dark days of 2003 when he "was never one to go outside my comfort zone and get up in front of the team", that he would ever be inclined to. Thompson had other ideas.

"We just wanted to throw (in) some unpredictability and some toughness and a little bit of something different," Thompson said.

"That's why (Matthew) Scarlett and Cam Mooney are on there, and Paul Chapman, because they are different. They are aggressive, they are tough and in Chappie and Cameron Mooney's case they are both very, very good communicators with players.

"(Cam) does everything different. He sometimes breaks the team rules, he sometimes doesn't pick up his man, occasionally he's been out (suspended) in his younger days when he probably shouldn't have been, sometimes he goes almost over the line with his attack on the body . . . he lives right on the edge.

"We need as a group and as a club to get close to that edge."

Mooney, at 26, agrees he is keen to challenge himself with the leadership role, but says he has another agenda.

"Everyone needs to be honest with yourself if you want to get better and I hope I can help the boys with that. But I also basically came (to Geelong) as Bomber's little protege in the Colbie (Leigh Colbert) deal and he showed a lot of faith in me," he said. "It's taken a few years to repay that faith and I want to keep doing that."

© 2006 The Age

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