Love of the game lures hoops star to Punt Rd

MATT Dea (pronounced 'Dee') is no lifelong footballer, unlike most who get drafted.

The 186cm, 83kg Dea, who was taken by the Tigers in Thursday night's NAB AFL Draft at 44, is a late convert from basketball. He was skipper of the U18 Country Victorian basketball team and played both sports before deciding to concentrate on footy.

But it was the love of the game that got him back into the outdoor sport.

"I played basketball, and made the switch to footy late this year, and I guess it's paid off," he said at Punt Rd on Sunday afternoon.

"I've probably played about 50 games through my junior career as well.

"I only played three TAC Cup games this year, but that was good experience - so not too many, not as many as the other boys, but hopefully it won't show.

"I just started playing with the school side and started really enjoying it, and then the guys at the (Ballarat) Rebels started saying I should have a real crack, and here we are."

Those three matches with the Rebels in the TAC Cup were very frustrating for Richmond recruiting manager Francis Jackson, who had been watching Dea for a while and was hoping he'd just play school footy and go unnoticed by the other clubs.

But that was ruined when the Rebels selected him, so Jackson had another chat to Dea.

"I was unaware of it until I met with Francis a few weeks ago and he told me the full story," he said.

"I couldn't believe how much homework they'd done, so it was pretty surprising.

"But Francis just told me to keep it a bit quiet."

The 18-year-old is a terrific athlete with a tremendous leap, pace and clean hands, who doesn't mind putting his body in traffic.

He said it was already proving tough to live without basketball, where he played point guard, which is generally the quarterback role on the court, although he said he was uncertain how much of that would translate to the football field.

"You don't play footy for the money or for anything else, you play it because you love it," he said.