Swift kid a long way from home bringing career up to speed at last
The Age
Friday July 17, 2009
Mentors and family have helped a young Bomber, writes Dan Silkstone. HE CAN'T even remember how many times he thought his career was over but Courtenay Dempsey does not feel that way any more. The fastest player at super-slick Essendon and one of the quickest in the competition, the 21-year-old has until recently made his footballing mark at snail's pace. Now for the accelerator.Entering his fourth year in AFL football, Dempsey had played just 10 games. The young Bomber had never strung together two in a row. It has been an injury run as testing as any player has suffered in recent years, let alone a shy boy from north Queensland who had virtually no background in Australian football and had relocated far from home, far from family and far from the sunshine."It was very, very hard on me," he says. "Hard on me mentally, being afraid of never getting a game. I got pretty desperate . . . I just thought, my body is not going to be up to playing footy at this level."Playing he now is and playing very well. Dempsey says he owes that to four people. One is Kevin Sheedy, another is former Bombers fitness guru John Quinn."In the back of my mind I kept thinking it was the end of my career," he says of his lost years at Windy Hill."They told me to keep going."Drafted with pick 19 in 2005, much was expected of the raw indigenous kid from Cairns by way of Brisbane. But in his second year, Dempsey suffered constant hamstring troubles as his coltish body struggled to adapt to the rigours of training.The following season, just as the staff thought they had got on top of the hamstring problem, Dempsey was struck down with shin splints."At that point I thought: 'This is it'," he says.Instead, Essendon stuck by him - first Sheedy and then Matthew Knights."Three years out of the game, not playing and, to be honest, not showing a lot of reasons why they should keep me. They have showed me faith and now I have to pay it back," he says.At times, he knows, he did not deserve that faith. "A lot of times I didn't want to be there, didn't feel like turning up to training, just because of the fact that I'd be sitting watching or doing recovery away from the group. You didn't ever really feel part of the team."Young, stressed and far from home, he admits he went off the rails."I did go off a bit," he says. "Not doing the proper rehab stuff, in my second and into my third year."Concerned, Sheedy and Quinn pulled Dempsey aside for long chats about his talent, his future and the changes he needed to make. "They really got me through it," he says.Quinn, particularly took an interest in the youngster that continues to this day. The former Bombers fitness man says: "He was away from his family and he felt like he was wasting our time and his own time because he wasn't able to be part of the group."For a young bloke who was probably feeling a bit like an impostor anyway because of his lack of background in the game, not playing was even harder. He was questioning where he was at, questioning everything."Dempsey and partner Danielle Kaitu were then living in a flat, just up the street from Quinn and his wife. Quinn started inviting them around, sometimes for dinner, sometimes just to sit and watch TV with his family.Plenty of people at Essendon were worried about the club's potential star but Quinn says he discovered a "gentle person" who just wanted to feel like he belonged somewhere."We were able to involve him in our family life a bit and that helped give him some support," he says."When the baby came along, a lot of people thought: 'This is going to be a disaster', but for Courtenay it has been the making of him."Danielle and daughter Chenae are the other two people who have turned it all around."She has dragged me into line a bit," he says of his 16-month-old child. "I did need it. I was pretty much just a typical young bloke wanting to go out all the time, have fun. When Chenae came along she straightened me out, kept me going and made me realise that partying is not everything. It has made me more happy at home and Matthew Knights always says if you get your home life right, footy life will follow."Sheedy told him he had plenty of ability, he just needed to get his body right. But to do that he needed to change his attitude and be more professional.Most importantly he told him he was wanted at Essendon. Needed even.The former coach is still an occasional mentor, just last weekend in Sydney the pair sat down for a 30-minute chat about life and football.The club was always confident in his ability."Just the speed I guess is what they saw," he says. On a list brimming with pace he is easily the finest athlete, Quinn says.He loves his current role as a rebounding defender who can set up play and break the lines with his speed. Missing just one game this year he has averaged 16 disposals, 11 uncontested possessions, four marks and two tackles per game.He ranks eighth at the club for disposals and handball-receives, fifth for handballs, seventh in marks and fifth for loose ball-gets.And while others may get the ball more, none use it quite so well. Dempsey leads the club for metres gained.Quinn - now a regular babysitter for Chenae - says despite Dempsey's concerns the Bombers never seriously considered delisting or trading him."We always knew he was a long-term bet."He is only going to get better and better."Once he learns the structures of football a bit more he will be a star of the game."The club has long known his potential and I think they are about to get a return."
© 2009 The Age
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