WHEN Lachie Keeffe got his first call from then Collingwood recruiting manager Derek Hine in 2007, he thought it was a prank and hung up.
Keeffe, a rangy project player who had only recently picked up a Sherrin, was boarding at Brisbane's Marist College Ashgrove, about two hours south of his family home in Gympie.
Like most Queensland teenagers, he tried a variety of sports including soccer, cricket, tennis and touch footy, before being coaxed to Australian football.
That's when long-time QAFL talent manager guru Mark Browning put him through his paces as part of the Rookie Search Program, with Hine being tipped off to Keeffe's attributes.
"I thought it was a joke, so I hung up on him originally," Keeffe chuckled through a lengthy conversation with AFL.com.au.
"There were a lot of prank calls in the boarding house.
"I went down and did a day at the Lexus Centre [Collingwood headquarters], and it snowballed from there.
"I got invited to what is now the Academy program (AIS) for a week and started to gather a bit more interest from other clubs.
"At the end of the year I signed with Collingwood as a Category B rookie."
Although it would take another 12 months until Keeffe was officially on the Magpies' list (pick No.69 in the 2008 Rookie Draft), this was the beginning of a 17-year career that is still humming despite a knee reconstruction, lacerated kidney, two-year drug ban, a delisting and a change of clubs.
Remarkably, only six current players – Scott Pendlebury, Travis Boak, Todd Goldstein, Patrick Dangerfield, Callan Ward and Taylor Walker – have been on a list longer than Keeffe.
He truly is one of the AFL's great survivors.
Arriving at Collingwood
Keeffe described himself as "young and naïve" when he headed south ahead of the 2008 season, having to learn the game from the bottom up.
His year was nothing like that which we see today.
Not yet on a contract, he would work part-time at Collingwood to earn money and then travel back to Queensland on weekends to play for the Sunshine Coast Power under-18 team.
Week after week.
Keeffe would also play for Old Trinity in the VAFA, winning a premiership with its under-19 team.
He played for Queensland's under-18 team at the division two national championships and was eventually granted permission for a handful of VFL games towards the end of the year that would solidify his drafting and three-year deal with the Magpies.
Standing 204cm and tipping the scales at just 80kg, those 2009 and 2010 seasons involved plenty of time in the gym to bulk up.
Luke Beveridge was a development coach at the time and encouraged Keeffe to ply his trade in the backline.
At a powerhouse club that made the 2009 preliminary final and won the 2010 premiership, the chance to debut did not present until round 16, 2011 when Chris Dawes was injured.
"Mick's (coach Mick Malthouse) mentality was I was next tall in line. I'd never played forward in my life," Keeffe said.
"You could just join in and play a bit of a role then though, that team was so good."
Keeffe played five games before the cavalry returned for the finals. It was enough to whet the appetite though and drive him to be a big contributor in 2012.
The knee reconstruction
Nine games into the new season, the first under Nathan Buckley, and Keeffe had made himself a regular, until round nine at AAMI Park when the Magpies were in the midst of a win over Adelaide.
That's when the dreaded torn anterior cruciate ligament occurred.
"It was a bit of a shock to the system. Again, I was naïve and didn't really know what I was in for, and that blissful ignorance helped me in a lot of ways," he said.
"I had a lot of good people around me. Nick Maxwell was a great captain and gave me a heap of great insight. I tried to attack it that even though I couldn't play footy, I could get better in a lot of other areas.
"They were the cards I was dealt and I had to get on with it.
"I was still pretty slender and hit the weights room pretty hard. We were doing two-a-days for six days a week sometimes.
"I wanted to attack that so I could tell myself I could compete when I got back."
Twelve months later, Keeffe would return through the VFL against an Essendon rookie named Joe Daniher.
After landing heavily on Daniher's ankle, it wasn't until he urinated blood post-match that Keeffe knew something was really wrong.
He'd lacerated a kidney. One week later in hospital, he'd dropped 10kg.
The drug ban
Keeffe's life, and more specifically his career in the AFL, would hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in early 2015 when he tested positive to performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol.
Along with teammate Josh Thomas, the pair admitted to taking illicit drugs, but with enough of the performance-enhancer in their system, were suspended for two years.
They were both also fined $50,000.
What had gone from the makings of a nice football career was suddenly tied up in legal proceedings and an uncertain future.
Keeffe's manager, his lawyer, the AFL Players' Association, Collingwood and the AFL were all involved.
"At the time it was a bit of a shock, people in suits rocking up at your house at six in the morning," Keeffe recalled.
"There were quite a few times when I didn't think I'd play again.
"I'm definitely not God's gift to football. I definitely wasn't a Dane Swan or a Dale Thomas.
"At the time I'd sort of fallen out of love with the game a bit and come to the notion that if my time was up, I was lucky enough to play for eight years, was financially sound and had great friendships.
"I thought if that was it, that was it. I just copped the whack."
Keeffe stayed in Melbourne through 2015, figuring out how to "be a better version of myself".
He got a personal trainer, hit the weights room hard again, started his Master of Business Administration and was able to travel a bit.
"In a weird and roundabout way, I really enjoyed my two years," he said.
"I started uni, trained, and didn't have the stress and anxiety of playing football at the highest level.
"I definitely kept a pretty low profile and didn't put myself out there.
"Then in the second year I moved back to Brissie.
"I lived with my folks at 25 when everyone has usually moved out. Hadn't lived at home since I was 15 … I was in a really good place.
"Obviously there was some anxiety and stress with the situation, but I tried to flick that and focus on things that brought me joy.
Keeffe got his head and body right to go again, and although he didn't play a senior game in 2017 after being relisted by the Magpies, his story was far from over.
Joining Greater Western Sydney
Keeffe conceded he hadn't "belted the door down" in his last year at Collingwood, so it came as a genuine surprise when the interest from the Giants came.
As he put it, tall timber can be hard to find, so you never really know, and now in his eighth year at the club, has added 78 games to his name to take his career tally to 118.
Rarely a regular, only once in those eight seasons has Keeffe strung together more than 10 consecutive games, when he tallied 13 on the trot in the COVID-interrupted season of 2020.
Which raises the question of his resilience.
Keeffe's career could have finished on four or five separate occasions, but each time, he's forged on.
"I definitely had good values instilled in me from an early age from mum and dad. I feel like dad is very similar and naturally you're learning a lot from him
"With a lot of my setbacks, like, what's the other option? You just get on with it.
"I love the challenge, I love getting better.
"Where I've come from there's just these incremental gains … I feel like at my age, I might be an idiot for thinking this, but why can't I be better than what I have before?
"That's what drives me. When you first start you just want to play, it's selfish, but then you get in a team and just want to win and be part of successful teams.
"My purpose is now broader too. My family gets so much joy out of what I do, sometimes more than I do.
"I've got a young family now (wife Emma and 11-month-old son Penn) that depend quite heavily on me, so being the best version of myself, being healthy, is important.
"I love the grind, I love going to work and putting in the time, I love learning, always looking for ways to get better."
In the Giants' round one game against Melbourne, Keeffe had a rare moment in the spotlight, icing victory with a clutch goal in the dying seconds.
His father, Matt, was at the MCG to see it.
"He was in the rooms to be part of that. Grandma texted me too. The joy those guys get is great to see," he said.
"Everyone has their own story and mine's certainly had its ups and downs.
"I really focus on playing, winning and then hopefully getting premierships … especially after the way last year finished, there's an opportunity to do something special.
"You just never know."
