Rocca Making it Count.

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The Sunday age

Rocca making it count
December 15 2002


The Magpies' misunderstood big man is working hard to build on his eye-opening grand final performance. Rohan Connolly reports.


'I pretty much forget it till people come up to me and talk about it," says Anthony Rocca of his controversial shot for goal in the last quarter of the grand final. And how often is that? Rocca's laughter gives the game away. "A fair bit."

Nearly three months later, Rocca hasn't revised his estimate that the shot was in fact in by "two feet". The ruling that it was a point denied him a fifth goal and, in the minds of many Magpies, a long-awaited 15th premiership.

He doesn't, however, fancy his part in what is already looming as grand final folklore's greatest pub debate since the 1979 Wayne Harmes incident, another in which the Magpies were on the receiving end, and a point not lost on coach Mick Malthouse. "Mick actually mentioned that at the Copeland Trophy night," says Rocca. "He said: 'Let's not turn it into another Wayne Harmes.'

"I was still pretty disappointed about it not being called a goal. When he said that, it sort of really put things into place for me, like deciding, 'Let's get over it, and let's get on with it'."

Which is also the very statement Rocca might have unconsciously been making about his own career during that nail biting few hours of the grand final.


From the time the younger Rocca brother first hit the headlines as a very reluctant Sydney draftee eight years ago, through the crescendo of cat-calling that accompanied his eventual move to join brother Sav at Collingwood two seasons later, and for most of the time since, Anthony Rocca has had no shortage of sceptics riding on his fall.

And despite having gradually worn down the critics with several years of steady improvement, Rocca nonetheless needed a big game on football's biggest day to dispel the jibes and the knowing smirks once and for all. He duly delivered.

That shot, had it been called a goal, would have been another plus in a lion-hearted display at centre half-forward and as a relief ruckman in conditions miserable for big men. His third quarter, in particular, caused Brisbane all sorts of headaches.

It was a relentless workhorse performance completely at odds with the popular perception of Rocca as a "feast or famine" type likely to be brought undone spectacularly when it mattered most. And it is what the Magpies themselves have come to expect.

"We'll be happy if he just continues to put in seasons like last season," says Collingwood football manager Neil Balme. "Seasons where he is just an honest contributor, who works hard, and we rely on him. That's what we need. How good he is or becomes in someone else's mind is of no great consequence to us."

Or, any more, to Rocca. "It stopped affecting me a couple of years after I went to Collingwood," he says. "The biggest thing that has helped me there has been Mick Malthouse. I remember him telling me: 'We don't care what other people think, we just care that you're busting a gut.' The first time he told me he was thinking about having me as one of the leadership group, he told just me to keep working my butt off. That was something that has really stood out to me, and I've pretty much taken the same stance since."

Balme, something of an authority on misunderstood footballers given his vastly differing on and off-field personas, reckons he hasn't seen many better examples than Rocca, freely admitting he, too, once subscribed to the same doubts as an opposition coach.

"The disappointing thing for people close to him is that he's such a stout-hearted, well-meaning bloke, and he's perceived as something other than that, and in my view that's very unfair. Last pre-season, when he had osteitis pubis, he wasn't able to do the training as normal, but the effort he put in and the discipline he showed to do what he had to, and still have quite a powerful, imposing season, was really commendable."

Now Rocca's greatest critic is himself. "I thought the first half of my season was better," he reflects. "I put on a little bit of weight, which didn't help me, because I'm a big guy already." In mid-season? How? "Just being an Italian fella," he chuckles. "I found I was pretty hungry consistently; it wasn't eating bad food, just a lot of it. I addressed it with the fitness staff and got back to a pretty good weight just before the finals started."

And now? "This pre-season's been really good. I'm ahead of where I was last year."

Asked if he has the confidence to step up again and become one of the AFL's elite key forwards, Rocca thinks for some time. "I actually felt that in the middle of last year, and because of things like what I said about the weight, I felt like I really let myself and the team down as well. I've just got to find that balance to play really good footy and maintain everything else as well.

"But the perceptions of people outside the club I don't really care about. I'm not out there to impress anyone else other than the coaches. They keep reinforcing that, and that's great. There's nothing better than doing things well and being told that you are. I think that's the single biggest factor in me playing better footy, and being a better person."

And, whether he cares or not, after games like his last one, perhaps also in making football's army of cynics, after eight years of Rocca-bashing, finally find a new fool for their sport

[Joel]

Good article. Nice to hear the thoughts on Rocca.

JDF

"We've never quit, and we won't."

[donuts]

Yes i agree, it is a very good article, and we should all get over that GOAL that wasnt called (even thought it is extreamly difficult). I am actualy really good friends with the daughter of the goal umpire who called that goal a behind so i found it so difficult to vent my frustatrion in front of her and also his son who i work with.
But anyway....good to see that Rocca is getting the praise from people other than the collingwood army...Hopefully next season is a real good one for him and the rest of the team.