LOOKING around GMHBA Stadium, across the carpark and down the hallway inside the Geelong Football Club reminded Marcus Herbert to remain patient. Stay the course. Your time will come.
The Cats have mastered the art of mature-age recruiting better than anyone else this century. Before Tom Stewart and Tom Atkins were full-time footballers, they were in the same VFL program Herbert has spent the past six seasons.
But now the 23-year-old from Warrnambool has his chance, just on the opposite side of the country, after West Coast selected the half-back/midfielder at pick No.13 in Tuesday night's Telstra AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft.
Herbert had been banging on the door for years, waiting for it to swing open. Geelong put him through a medical last season when he won the Cats' VFL best and fairest, but no other club met with him or invited him to trial during the pre-season.
Geelong didn't meet with him before the mid-season draft. They didn't have a pick. But four other clubs did across the past month. Richmond came down to see him first. Then West Coast a few days after that. Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs booked in a fortnight later.
Magpies national recruitment manager Shane O'Bree had coached Herbert when he was at the Cats and rated him, but Collingwood's priorities changed with two players suffering ACL injuries in the last two games. The Dogs also had him high on their board, but needed a ready-made back-up ruck. Richmond only took one player, leaving the Eagles as his best shot. After waiting so long, it finally went his way.
West Coast recruiters Duane Massey, Adam Shepard and Damon Poole returned to Herbert's house on Wednesday morning, just 12 hours after picking him, to help organise his move on Thursday to Perth, where he will start on a six-month contract.
"Yeah, it's been a long six years to kind of make it to this point. Lucky enough I have an opportunity now," Herbert told AFL.com.au after being picked in the mid-season draft.
"It's super exciting. I just had some of the West Coast lads come down before and just the confidence that they have in me to go out and do what I do, gives me the confidence to go do it. So I'm super keen for that, and they're super rapt with me and the player I am. I really want to put that on show now."
Herbert went through the pathways with the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in the Talent League, but 2020 was his draft year. You know what happened. It was completely wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By that stage, he had only just committed to football full-time after focusing on basketball as well until the age of 16, so he didn't have enough runs on the board to get picked.
Then he joined the Cats' VFL program in 2021 while playing as an over-ager with the Rebels and became a permanent fixture by 2023. That was the same year Geelong selected a 26-year-old Shaun Mannagh from Werribee and a 20-year-old Lawson Humphries from Swan Districts. Both have quickly become stars in the AFL.
Mannagh has constantly motivated Herbert to keep pushing, reminding him that some just take longer to get a look-in, while Humphries reached out again on Tuesday night to celebrate a moment thousands dream of, but few experience.
"I remember when Shauny reached out last year and just said, 'Mate, you're doing awesome, I love playing alongside you, keep going'. That was a great message to get from him last year. Lawson's reached out all the time, and he reached out last night as well, which was great," he said.
"Watching 'Stewy' [Tom Stewart] and 'Ax' [Tom Atkins] do what they've done out of the same VFL (program), (which is) not the most common path getting picked at 18, that does keep the dream alive, so to speak.
"Shaun is awesome with the way he's gone about and just ripped in. The confidence he's playing with kind of gives you a little bit of confidence to do the same when you get your shot."
Mannagh is one of many in Herbert's corner, led by his agent Jase Farmer from Pacific Sports Management. So is the Geelong Football Club and the community of Warrnambool, where his family has strong links to Brisbane Lions great Jonathan Brown.
Herbert travels to Perth on Thursday in form, averaging 30.8 disposals across his past six VFL games, and could play against Peel Thunder on Sunday. From there, he will have 11 more opportunities to get a spot in Andrew McQualter's team before his contract expires.
So can he come over and make an immediate impact? Tom McCarthy has been a smash hit at the Eagles since being selected this time last year. Ryan Maric and Jack Hutchinson have also played a lot since being selected via the same mechanism. And then there is another mature-age recruit – Milan Murdock – who has captured the attention of the competition since being signed before the SSP deadline.
"I feel up to it, 100 per cent I feel ready," he said.
"I play against, you know, some AFL guys, look at the back of their number, and they're sub 45 (numbers on an AFL list) and I think, bring it on.
"Nine times out of 10 recently I've been leaving the ground, and my player hasn't either kicked a goal (or) had too much on me, so that gives me confidence to do it at the big league. I do feel confident that I can bring my game and take it to that level, hold my spot, and play well."
Herbert doesn't have much time to make his mark at West Coast, but he now has much more time in his week to get the most out of himself on weekends. He won't be training clients at 6am in the morning as a personal trainer anymore. Nor will he be working as a NDIS community access support worker until he has given AFL his best shot.
"It's a role that I love," he said. "It's been a great job we've been doing for about five or six years. I help people with their day-to-day life, you know run any errands, appointments, give them someone to listen to, talk to, and kind of do some of their life admin. I guess the main role is just to make their life feel to them like they've got some sort of purpose, is probably the best way I can put it."
Herbert's own life now has even greater purpose. His time has, finally, come.
