“…Footy was the dream, but it was never the expectation.”

IT’S an unusually honest comment from a professional sportsman, but Brendon Ah Chee, always speaks with sincerity and humility.

So, when he says he never expected to make AFL football – it’s isn’t hard to believe him.

Ah Chee battled self-doubt throughout his journey, but embodies Port Adelaide’s mantra of never, ever giving up.

His love of the game was born from the values of his parents, who saw the vast benefits of childhood sport: being a part of a team, developing new skills and interacting with other kids.

The Ah Chees valued it so much that the family – mum, dad and six sons – moved from the remote WA town of Derby to Fremantle when Brendon was seven, to afford them an opportunity to get a solid education and play team sport.

Football became the focal point of his life at the age of 13, it remains so today.

He played both footy and basketball from an early age, but when it came down to the wire, Ah Chee only ever had eyes for the Australian game.

The young talent spent his teenage years captaining his junior football club - the Kelmscott Bulldogs - and those are years he fondly remembers. 

“All my school mates hoped I’d make it… obviously in high school people usually start doing a lot of other stuff - but footy was always my priority,” Ah Chee told portadelaidefc.com.au.

Undeniably dedicated, Ah Chee “backed himself in” with his training and preparation.

A surprise draftee

As dedicated as he was, Ah Chee’s has battled self-doubt throughout his career.

He was selected for the WA state under-18 squad, but after only being given half a game on the field, his confidence plummeted.

“I don’t think I had an amazing year in under-18s… I guess I just didn’t have that much exposure or anything, and nobody really talked about me,” he said. 

“I spoke to a few clubs throughout the year, but I thought that was typical of playing under-18s.”

He resigned himself that an AFL football dream wasn’t to be a reality and spent a gap year working as a mentor to young Aboriginal students at a local primary school, continued playing WAFL footy for South Fremantle and enrolled to study architecture at university for a start in early 2012.

Then, on 24 November 2011, his world changed.

Ah Chee sat down on the couch that night to watch the 2011 National Draft, but purely to see where his mates from WAFL would end up.

“I remember just sitting on the couch and it was pick 44 that came and went, and then the next pick was Port Adelaide…and I head 'Brendon Ah Chee'.

“The whole house just erupted.

“All my brothers were jumping on me, and they couldn’t believe it, it was brilliant - one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.”

After convincing himself a career in football was off the cards, he’d been drafted to an AFL club on the other side of the Nullarbor.

Growing pains

Three days later he was in New Zealand doing his first pre-season camp with Port Adelaide.

That’s when the real challenge began.

Arriving at the club as a skinny 17-year-old, it was clear Ah Chee had work to do.

“Looking back I was really young and naïve and I didn’t really know much about much, but I just wanted to try my best and fit in with the group and earn the respect – that’s always the first thing,” he said of his first few weeks under the Port Adelaide roof.

His first two seasons were plagued by injury, particularly severe patella tendonitis.

He underwent surgery twice to repair the damage to his knee, which left him sidelined for three months at a time, immediately putting him behind the pace in developing his football craft.

Niggling injuries resulting in incomplete pre-seasons meant he wasn’t developing the same fitness base as his teammates; always hitting his stride too late in the year.

His confidence was at an all-time low and his coaches had started noticing.

Halfway through his third season, Port Adelaide's coaching staff developed a plan to get Ah Chee back on the horse and performing at the level they knew he was capable of.

They gave him the responsibility of tagging the opposition’s best in the SANFL. 

It was a make-or-break time for Ah Chee - and the final lifeline offered by his coaches.

But it worked a treat.

“I’ve never really been a tagger before, but they put me on a few of the tougher goal players and I started shutting them down, and as I did that my confidence grew,” Ah Chee said.

“Then I got chucked into the midfield, and it sort of just snowballed from there. I guess the confidence grew from knowing that I had a role to play for the team, and I got it done.

“From there my confidence kept growing and I started playing better footy, and as that happens, your confidence grows more and more…towards the end of the season I was playing pretty good footy. I think that was the turning point.”

Something had finally clicked for the midfielder, and the result was a turnaround success story. 

Debut

Even after playing a standout back half of the 2014 season, regularly rating in the Magpies’ best players, winning the coaches’ award for the league team and completing a strong 2015 pre-season, he was still blindsided by his first AFL selection in Round 3 this year.

On the brink of letting it all slip away, he’d turned it around and earned himself his first Power guernsey.

“That was really unexpected, I guess….Kenny was really happy with my game and my pre-season form, so he must’ve thought I was ready to play,” he said.

“Obviously I was pretty shocked, but more than anything I was just excited. It’s my fourth year so it was a long time coming.

“I’ve gone through a lot of hurdles and ups and downs, but to finally get out and actually play with my teammates that I’ve been with for four years was unbelievable.”

Ah Chee proudly pulled on the Power guernsey for the first time when he made his AFL debut on 18 April against North Melbourne, and also facing Hawthorn and West Coast in Rounds 4 and 6.

The country boy from WA knows he still has a long way to go to earn a permanent spot in Port Adelaide’s AFL side, but his confidence is finally where it needs to be for him to continue the upward climb.

“I’ve played three AFL games this year and I know I can handle the pressure,” he said.

“So I guess it’s just about keeping playing SANFL footy and keeping the coaches’ trust in me, and when I’m ready to play, they’ll play me and hopefully I can perform my role for the team.”  

Regardless of what the next peak or trough is for Brendon Ah Chee, with integrity, humility and hard work at the forefront of his mind, he’s determined to continue making that football dream a reality.

Brendon Ah Chee will return to SANFL football against Central District on Saturday afternoon after recovering from a one-week patella injury