‘Kept pushing’: VFL forward Brodie McLaughlin’s snubs and setbacks en route to Suns chance

VFL forward Brodie McLaughlin remains in contention for an unlikely rise to AFL ranks, continuing to train with Gold Coast during the pre-season supplemental selection period.

Of a small group of hopefuls invited to trial, Frankston’s McLaughlin is the only player still at the Suns. The club has one vacancy on its list.

Frankston coach Danny Ryan is calling the 25-year-old – who was overlooked for the Under 18 NAB League and entered senior football in the lower grades of the Victorian amateurs – “the last man standing”.

“He’s obviously been performing well and impressing a few people. We hope he can get across the line,” Ryan says.

McLaughlin topped Frankston’s goalkicking list last year with 24 goals from 12 matches.

A shoulder injury had put him out for the first third of the season.

McLaughlin says he was surprised but prepared when he received a call, inviting him to train with the Suns.

He flew to the Gold Coast in early December.

“I’ve known myself that I’ve been ready for this opportunity for a while,” he says.

“But I think there’s that little bit of shock when an AFL club is interested in you. It’s pretty surreal to have that, when you play VFL and a club at a level higher reach out and show that interest in you.

“It’s great to have a reward for effort and get some attention.

“Every year I’ve tried to push myself a bit further and been ambitious in what I think I can achieve. I’ve been hard on myself and determined to push myself as hard as I can until I could get to that opportunity. If it wasn’t to be, it wasn’t to be. I wasn’t going to leave anything out on the park. I didn’t want to have any regrets.”

He says his time at the Suns has been “really exciting, and hopefully it ends with a good result, but regardless it’s been a great opportunity”.

A Balwyn and Boroondara Hawks junior, McLaughlin joined Frankston in 2021 after a two-year stint with North Melbourne’s VFL team.

He broke his leg at the Roos early in 2019, but came back late in the season to show hints of his ability.

After Covid wiped out 2020, he was happy to stay at North Melbourne, “but there was too much uncertainty with the VFL program and what it was going to look like”.

“They were pretty open about it, that there might not be any training and it might be a case of just come and play on the weekend, but I guess I was looking for a little bit more development and opportunities to get exposed to good coaches,” McLaughlin says.

Contacts at De La Salle, McLaughlin’s “home” club in the Victorian amateurs, alerted Frankston coach Ryan to the right-footer.

After Frankston’s season finished last year, he played a game for De La against eventual grand finalists Uni Blacks and booted five goals.

Ryan says McLaughlin, 193cm, is a “rangy, running, linking, high forward” who can also play on the wing.

“He’s got great hands. But the biggest thing about Brodie is his sense of timing. He’s not a speedy runner. He’s got good endurance, and he’s got the knack of reading the ball in flight and going to the right spot to get a bit of separation on his opponent,” he says.

“Within 40m or so he’s a safe shot for goal too. There’s a bit to like about him.

“He’s a highly intelligent young man, a deep thinker, and footy-smart, clever.”

Ryan understands Gold Coast’s recruiters were watching other players in the VFL and McLaughlin took their eye late in 2022.

“We weren’t expecting it. But he’d been our best performer forward of the ball. Brodie’s … an age where you wonder if they’ve missed their shot,’’ Ryan says.

“But credit to him, he’s kept pushing. Our (fitness staff) designed a speciality running program for him and he’s been able to shave time off his two and three kilometre time trials.

“He’s got himself in great nick and presented very well since he’s been up there.

“He’s like a lot of players in state league footy. You give them a chance in the system and they’re a fair chance to do well.”

Ryan believes the Suns may have identified the Dolphin as a potential replacement for Josh Corbett, who was traded to Fremantle.

Former AFL midfielder Nathan Freeman played with McLaughlin at Frankston and now manages him.

Freeman says his running ability, height and marking make him a difficult match-up and a potential AFL player, adding McLaughlin was invariably the first to Frankston’s training and last to leave.

“He actually had his own key to the gym because he would stay so late,” he says.

“He would lock the place up.”

McLaughlin says the story is half-right: he was given the security codes.

“After every session I’d be staying around doing weights or goalkicking or touch work, whatever it might be, and it could get late.

“I didn’t get a set of keys but I did get the codes to the alarms.”

Overlooked by the Oakleigh Chargers during his under-age years, McLaughlin entered senior football at Bulleen-Templestowe.

He transferred to De La Salle to play in the higher VAFA Premier section in 2018, kicking 27 goals under the coaching of VFL JJ Liston Trophy winner Paul Satterley.

Former De La Salle president Matt O’Callaghan, who coached McLaughlin at Balwyn, declares him “the best player I’ve coached in junior footy”.

“And he’s a deadset ripper kid, the sort of kid you want to see do well,” he says.

“You’ve got to take your hat off to him, because there have been a lot of people who said, ‘At his age, why is he wasting his time with football, he should get on with his career’.

“He just believes in himself. He’s been training the house down for the past few years just to get this opportunity.”

Another Frankston player, key defender Kye Turner, continues to train at Melbourne.

The Dolphins had young ruckman Liam Reidy drafted by Fremantle in last November’s rookie draft.