Player Watch #11 Tom Papley - Telling it like it is

[Kennedy Parker]

Tom Papley

Player Profile
Tom Papley

11

Tom Papley

Age

27

Ht

177cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.1

4star

K

9.1

4star

HB

5.0

4star

M

3.7

4star

T

3.2

5star

G

1.5

5star

D

12.3

3star

K

8.9

4star

HB

3.4

2star

M

4.5

4star

T

1.5

2star

G

2.4

5star

D

13.4

4star

K

8.0

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

3.4

5star

G

1.6

5star

swapped his plumbing tools for a Sherrin when the Sydney Swans sprung a draft surprise in 2015 – and the pocket-rocket forward has since become a crucial member of coach John Longmire’s side. Papley has played 20 or more senior games in every one of his four full seasons in the AFL and was at his best in 2019, topping Sydney’s goal-kicking leaderboard and finishing fourth in the Bob Skilton Medal voting. The Gippsland Power product took on more time in the midfield in 2019 and is likely to again split his time between the forward line and centre bounce this year. Papley was selected in the AFL Players’ Association’s 22Under22 team in 2017. Draft history: 2016 Rookie Draft selection (Sydney) No. 12; 2016 AFL Draft rookie elevation (Sydney).

Tom Papley

11

Tom Papley

Age

27

Ht

177cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.1

4star

K

9.1

4star

HB

5.0

4star

M

3.7

4star

T

3.2

5star

G

1.5

5star

D

12.3

3star

K

8.9

4star

HB

3.4

2star

M

4.5

4star

T

1.5

2star

G

2.4

5star

D

13.4

4star

K

8.0

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

4star

T

3.4

5star

G

1.6

5star

DOB: 13 July 1996
DEBUT:2016
DRAFT: 2016
RECRUITED FROM: Bunyip (Vic)/Gippsland U18

Tom Papley | AFL

Follow Tom Papley's progress through AFL

www.sydneyswans.com.au

 

[Ticky009]

My mate and I have taken to calling him The Smear.

Ick.
I heard him referred to as Papers.

 

[grimlock]

Already tracking better than Cyril

 

[scaryness]

Already tracking better than Cyril

Tutt: 26 disposals, 4 goals (First 3 kicks were goals), 2 goal assists
Barlow: 33 disposals, 2 goals, 3 goal assists
Gray: 16 disposals, 3 goals
Smith: 13 disposals, 4 goals
Papley: 11 disposals, 3 goals

 

[GotTheGoodes]

Max's nickname was Bubbles

I've been waiting to replace Pebbles in my nickname list... this is perfect!

 

[Cadsky]

Already tracking better than Cyril

And yet he didnt get rising star for round 1. Vic bias at it again

 

[J_Moore]

Already tracking better than Cyril

Tutt; Tapscott; Glenn; Gray (the s**t one).

What august company.

 

[bungwahl]

My mate and I have taken to calling him The Smear.

Exact same thing for me. My mate texts me on Saturday night with "Jeez the Smear is on fire".. took me a minute to work out who he meant.

 

[Lakeside Swan]

Already tracking better than Cyril

I thought that he would have got the nod over Clayton Oliver.

 

[MarkP]

Exact same thing for me. My mate texts me on Saturday night with "Jeez the Smear is on fire".. took me a minute to work out who he meant.

I was reading the Pies board at half time for the schadenfreude rush and they were calling him Smear as well wondering where he came from and how the hell was he tearing them a new first game

 

[Swansujelly]

Early days, but another rookie list gem on the cards.

 

[bedford]

Great get this kid, has the work ethic of a young Kirk albeit a different player. If he's a 10th of Max Papley he will play seniors. As an old boy I just remember Max playing for South, if it wasn't for cricket he would have played over 200 and maybe won a Brownlow, he was that good. But i'm biased as I played under Max for 3 years.

Gee wiz , even I didn't think he would be this good so early. What a little ripper he is.

 

[RW]

I'm excited too bedders.

 

[Edmund hunt]

I think he is a good replacement for Goodes but what will happen when Reid returns?

 

[RUNVS]

I really like the idea of a forward line consisting of

F: Papley, Reid, Tippett
HF: McGlynn, Franklin, Rose

It is a great combination of tall forwards with strong marking ability (Reid, Tippett), a tall mobile forward (Franklin) and 3 small forwards with great goal sense, who can feed off the bigger marking targets but also have really good forward pressure (Papley, Rose and McGlynn).

 

[bedford]

I really like the idea of a forward line consisting of

F: Papley, Reid, Tippett
HF: McGlynn, Franklin, Rose

It is a great combination of tall forwards with strong marking ability (Reid, Tippett), a tall mobile forward (Franklin) and 3 small forwards with great goal sense, who can feed off the bigger marking targets but also have really good forward pressure (Papley, Rose and McGlynn).

Surely you can fit Towers in

 

[MarkP]

Surely you can fit Towers in

Never change mate

 

[The King!]

I'm excited too bedders.

Going wild at the RW residence ?

 

[Lakeside Swan]

Some amazing articles this morning on Papuopulo:
(I don't have the links, this was emailed to me).

Please find Sydney Swans Media Clips below for Wednesday, April 27.
Tom's arrival unannounced
Ben Horne
Daily Telegraph, April 27

SYDNEY Swans young gun Tom Papley might have rivalled Leicester City as the sporting bet of the year, if only the bookies knew who he was.

All-time underdogs Leicester were 5000-1 to start the EPL season, with punters set to win hundreds of thousands of pounds as the fairytale nears its stunning conclusion.

But in a different hemisphere and in a different code, 19-year-old Papley was so far off the radar to begin this AFL campaign he didn’t even exist on the list of betting for the Rising Star award.

Just a few months ago the smart money was on his AFL dream to drift off into the distance and for the 177cm small forward to continue his plumbing apprenticeship instead.

However, out of nowhere Papley has come roaring into $17 with TAB to win the AFL’s prestigious Rising Star mantle — amongst a host of more fancied rookies — after earning the Round 5 nomination for his dazzling performance against West Coast.

This was a kid written off as being “too small” by recruiters and twice overlooked by every single club in the league after unsuccessfully nominating for the last two AFL drafts.

Even after the Swans snaffled him up on their rookie list, it didn’t take a bookie to tell you how long the odds were of him starting the 2016 season in the AFL.

One injury to Ben McGlynn leading into the opening round, and the rest is history.

“Obviously as a rookie or as a first-year player you don’t expect to play in your first year. I didn’t expect to play but now I’ve got my opportunity I just want to keep playing and keep playing my role,” said Papley ahead of the Swans’ road trip to Brisbane to face the Lions this Sunday.

“(Before round one) the coach came up to me and said ‘you’re playing this week’ and that was a pretty good feeling knowing your dream is going to come true. I can’t explain it really.

“It’s obviously very surreal … if you stick by your goals and keep working hard at what you want to do, you can achieve anything really.”

What’s been most impressive about Papley’s meteoric rise is his consistency.

Aside from a slightly off day in the loss to Adelaide, Papley has contributed goals and a ton of possessions every week.

Swans blood runs thick through his veins — with both of his grandfathers playing for South Melbourne in the 1960s and Papley spending his childhood years in Bunyip running water for one of the Gippsland town’s elder products Shane Mumford, who was coached by his father.

Papley now wears the No.41 Mumford wore during his time at the Swans and with the maturity you might expect from a kid who has been around footy all his life, he knows a Round 5 Rising Star nomination won’t be what defines him in the long run.

Particularly leading into a bumper month for the Swans where they will start with Brisbane and Essendon before travelling to Melbourne to take on Richmond and Hawthorn before clashing with ladder-leaders North Melbourne in Sydney.

“As a young player you want to be consistent, that’s really what I want to focus on,” he said.

“It’s a big month for us, we’ve got a few big games and if blokes can keep being consistent and playing well in those big games that should set our season right up.”

Papley is proud of his AFL pedigree — which is a good thing because in between grandfather Max Papley, his late pop Jeff Bray and his links to Mumford, he’s unlikely to escape it.

“My grandfather gave me a quick call this morning. He’s obviously pretty proud but he’s just happy I’m playing and everything is going well,” he said.

“I started playing when I was about three or four in Auskick down in Bunyip. Dad would be coaching the seniors and I’d just go down there and kick around the footy.

“Dad was actually (Mumford’s) first senior coach which is interesting. Since I was 10 or so he was playing seniors ... I would run the water and I used to love being there and being around them.”


Bunyip brotherhood drives Swans gun Papley
David Sygall
SMH, April 27

Long before Swans coach John Longmire told Tom Papley, ‘‘You’re playing this week’’ ahead of the Swans’ round-one match against Collingwood, the plucky small forward’s destiny seemed written.

With a pair of grandfathers steeped in Swans history – the late Jeff Bray played 34 games for South Melbourne in the 1960s and Max Papley was the 1966 club champion – Bloods blood runs thickly through the clan’s generations.

However, it is through Tom’s father David and one of the players David coached at Bunyip in country Victoria that the seed for the 19-year-old’s fledgling career was truly planted.

Papley would run the water for the club’s firsts, seconds and thirds when his dad was coaching the top side, which featured a young Shane Mumford, the Swans’ premiership-winning ruckman who also played at Geelong and now at GWS. It explains why Papley, fiercely proud of the Bunyip brotherhood, chose the number 41 for his guernsey, the number Mumford has worn across his nine seasons so far.

‘‘I started playing when I was three or four, just at Auskick down at Bunyip and I always used to watch my dad play,’’ Papley says the day after being awarded a Rising Star nomination for his effort in the Swans’ 39-point win over the Eagles on Saturday.

‘‘Since I was one I’d go there every week, every training. Tuesday and Thursday [dad] would be coaching the seniors and I’d go down there and just kick around the footy. Through juniors you grow up loving footy and loving Bunyip. I was a country boy, living at home and just loved the Bunyip footy club. You just keep growing and growing as a player and eventually come up.’’

David was Mumford’s first senior coach, Papley recalls with a smile.

‘‘He was a good kid,’’ he says through his 10-year-old boy’s memory. ‘‘He was very loyal, always around the club, used to love the club and he’s pretty friendly. He’s made a lot of friends along the way. A few boys at the club used to love his company and I’m sure it’s the same at GWS.’’

Mumford earned respect at Sydney with his uncompromising style of play, a reputation Papley has started earning since kicking three goals on debut against Collingwood. Since then, he has shown himself to be a more-thanuseful decoy for established stars around him, including Lance Franklin. He says he is enjoying his task of applying pressure in the forward 50, harassing and trying to ‘‘bring energy to the team’’.

‘‘That was a pretty good feeling, knowing that your dream’s going to come true. You can’t explain it really,’’ he says of the moment Longmire told him it was ‘‘game on’’.

‘‘I didn’t expect to play, but now I’ve got my opportunity I just want to keep playing and keep playing my role. If you stick by your goals and keep working hard at what you want to do, you can achieve anything really.’’

Country pride is strong in Papley. But, backgrounded by rolling four-foot waves at Bronte Beach after a team recovery session, he talks of how much he is enjoying his early days at the club his family knows so well. It also helps living with two keen students of the game, Irishman Colin O’Riordan and one-time Sudanese refugee backman Aliir Aliir.


A rising star: Papley’s ties in red and white forged in blood
Peter Lalor
The Australian, April 27

Gary Rohan is expected to return for his first game of 2016 this Sunday, which makes for one of those interesting “sliding door” moments.

The 188cm ball distributor comes off the long-term injury list at the very moment his replacement, the 177cm Tom Papley, asserts he is a long-term prospect by winning the Rising Star nomination for round five.

Fortunately for Papley, Rohan and the Swans, there appears to be enough wiggle room for both players.

Swans would like Rohan to be up and about as a possible replacement for Ted Richards who is out with a fractured cheek. It is a rotten blow for the defender who took a screamer, kicked a goal and picked up a perfect 10 votes for his efforts against Adelaide on the weekend.

Rohan, however, is unlikely to start in the seniors after missing the first five rounds with a hamstring injury.

In that time Papley has fashioned himself a fairytale.

When the 19-year-old was passed over in the 2015 draft for the second year running he figured 2016 would be another year spent finishing his plumbing apprenticeship and kicking the footy around for Gippsland Power.

When the call came that the Swans had relented and picked him up for the rookie draft he rang his grandfather Max, a former club champion with South Melbourne, and both wept tears of relief.

Still, he wasn’t getting his hopes up, he knew it was going to be a hard slog in the twos, banging around the NEAFL in the hope that one day the seniors might be shy a small forward.

Two days before round one John Longmire gave him a call and said he was pulling him off the rookie list and giving him a run because Ben McGlynn was also on the injured list.

First game he kicked three goals. Round two he picked up the best mark award for a running-back-with-the-ball effort that confirmed the kid has serious courage.

Round five and the little man has picked up the Rising Star award after a string of games that, like the strange turn of events leading up to it, nobody saw coming.

A Bunyip boy, he has a brilliant football pedigree with his maternal grandfather Jeff Bray twice voted club best and fairest at West Adelaide before moving East to play for South Melbourne — the same year Max Papley joined the Bloods.

Max Papley later moved from Souths to coach Bunyip and his son David, Tom’s father, did the same.

The third generation footballer says he learned about the game watching his father’s side from a young age but wanted to repeat the feats of both his grandfathers.

“It’s what you dream of,” the youngest Papley said yesterday.

“The journey starts way back when you are younger and now it’s where I want to be. Obviously I didn’t expect to play but now I have got my opportunity I just want to keep playing and play my role.”

Papley loves the territory in front of goal, moving there at 16 and finding that he enjoyed it more than the midfield.

While the family influence was strong, there was another big name in football who came through his early life with Cat turned Swan turned Giant, Shane Mumford being one of the players who was coached by his father.

“Dad was his first senior coach,” Papley said. “When he got picked up by Geelong dad was always saying ‘I was his first senior coach’.

Papley has been around football long enough to know that despite his great start he hasn’t made it yet.

“As a young player you want to be consistent, that’s what I want to focus on.

“It’s a big month for us, we have got to travel to Melbourne a bit and we have a few big games. If I just keep being consistent and play well in those big games it can set our season up.”

 

[bedford]

Great stuff LS. Gee I hate the term Souths, we were South Melbourne , not Souths Melbourne.

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Pretty sure it's just a plural term. Doesn't make sense but it's not a big deal.


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[bedford]

Pretty sure it's just a plural term. Doesn't make sense but it's not a big deal.


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Well it is for me as it's South Melbourne

 

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Sorry, ffs.


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[bedford]

Sorry, ffs.


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Thanks for understanding ffs

 

[Neverwas]

So Jeff Bray was from Souths Australia!

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[CD__]

Pretty sure it's just a plural term. Doesn't make sense but it's not a big deal.


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Maybe we should start calling North Melbourne Norfs

But I'm pretty sure that most sporting teams globally that have the word 'South' in their name get called 'Souths' don't they?