By David Nagel
Blake Carew – Dalyston’s last-goal hero in his 200th game against Kooweerup on Saturday – was shattered when he was told as a 14-year-old that he would never play football again.
Playing for the Dalyston fourths, the footy-obsessed local ruptured a kidney after laying a tackle in his beloved black and white jumper.
It was the same year, 2006, that Geelong star Tom Lonergan suffered a similar injury; spending four days in a coma, his life threatened, and having his kidney removed.
“I loved football and knew every AFL player by jumper, I was fanatical about the sport,” Carew said.
“At the time the doctors told me, ‘there’s no way you’re playing football again’, and that was crushing.
“But I had a stent put in and my kidney healed around it.
“No-one was allowed to touch me and I spent four months in bed.
“Now I’ve got a little scar, no bigger than your thumbnail…I’m ridiculously lucky when I think about it.”
Carew has been at Dalyston since he had barley learned to walk, with his dad ‘Ant’ a popular figure at the club who played in a reserves premiership in 1982, his first year out of thirds, before playing a key role in defence in the senior flag of 1989.
“Dad was originally a winger, but he tells the story that he got sent back one day and did too well…and they left him in defence forever,” Blake says with a chuckle.
“He was full back for a long time, at my height, which is ridiculous when you think about it.
“I was very small, running around at Dalyston, trying to find dad after he played…I remember it very well and they’re great memories.”
Blake Carew was a talented junior, winning a thirds’ best and fairest at Dalyston as a 16-year-old in 2008, before transitioning to seniors the following year.
It was during 2009 that he was rejected by Gippsland Power, being told he was too small to make the grade.
He finally pulled on the Power jumper as a top-age player in 2010, sharing the stage with future AFL players such as Dyson Heppell and Jed Lamb.
But his intermittent selection saw him question his position at the club, with then Power coach Damien Carroll using his connections to organise an opportunity at the then Casey Scorpions.
Carroll was a champion player for the Springvale Scorpions, who later became Casey.
“I played a random VFL game that year and played pretty well, and they signed me for the following year,” Carew explained.
“I played one year at Casey, and did pre-season for 2012, but travelling four times a week from Wonthaggi to Cranbourne was just not me.
“The travel, up and back, was a lot; I wasn’t fully committed so there was no point taking someone else’s spot.
It was back to the familiar surroundings of Dalyston for Carew, who was a speedy winger who played a key link-up role as the Magpies pushed towards premiership success.
“I thought we were the best team in it in 2014, we went straight through to the grand final, but lost to Phillip Island when we shouldn’t have,” he said.
“They blew us off the park, and we were livid, but we doubled down, and topped up with some players who had moved to the area.
“Nothing was going to stop us in 2015.”
The Magpies went undefeated, winning all 18 home-and-away games before going all the way with an 82-point victory over Fish Creek.
“Playing on the wing was fun that year,” Carew said.
“We had Brad Fisher playing at centre half back and as soon as he marked the ball I ran to the switch side…it was a pretty easy gig.
“I was little and fast back then…and just played the link man between back and forward.”
He joined his father Ant as a premiership player that year.
“My whole footy life has been around him, it’s been amazing really to spend so much of my life with him just by playing footy,” he said thankfully.
“He was the board man, moving the magnets for our playing-coach Paul Brosnan so he was heavily involved in the whole thing.
“I remember seeing him and giving him a big hug…there’s nothing better.”
A premiership vice-captain, Carew took over the senior captaincy in 2016 and held the mantle for seven years, only relinquishing the position to Brayden Duve this season.
The Magpies were a powerhouse in the first season of the WGFNC, in 2017, but a player exodus saw Carew and his team fall to the lower reaches of the ladder.
His played some of his best football across half back in 2018, winning the senior best and fairest award.
Through the highs and lows of the last decade, Carew has always called Dalyston home.
“I’ve been there since I was five years old, but there have been tough times recently when I felt like a change was on the cards,” he admitted.
“But every time I talk to people around the club, there’s no way I could leave.
“There’s no way I could play for someone else.
“I play football to be around the club, more than the club is there for me to play football.
“My lifelong friends are from the club.
“I really do love the place and the people within it.”
So, can he see a time when the Magpies are back at the top of the table and competing for premiership success?
“I can, and it probably started last year, understanding that doing things the same way wasn’t going to cut it anymore, being in a much better league than we were,” he said.
“There was a massive gap to fill.
“We started to build a professional environment, like getting stats done, tracking our GPS numbers.
“It might not help us kick more goals, but it makes people understand that people are investing heavily in us as players, and we need to do just as much, or more, than they are.
“Our coach (Dean McRae) and Footy Department Manager (Marcus Loughran) have done a mountain of work to get players on board and create a real buzz around the place.
“It’s a good launching pad to build on…hopefully all the way back to the top.”
