Player Watch Levi Greenwood (Retired 2021)

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Did he tag Neale yesterday? Saw him moved into defence, and Neale had a solid day, but could have been after Levi moved off him.
 

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The glueman
Always best 22

Love his work
Love his intent

Loved that rundown

Match winning tackle and I loved the rub of the boys head after getting up
Classy move
 
Salt water life keeps Magpie Greenwood fresh

Raise the topic of surfing with Magpies star Levi Greenwood and it is like bringing to life a character from the pages of a Tim Winton novel.

The 29-year-old, who may well be tasked with stopping Richmond star Dustin Martin in Friday night’s preliminary final at the MCG, was raised on the back of a board on the Eyre Peninsula.

In the town of Port Neill to be precise which, to let Greenwood take up the narrative, “is 40km the Adelaide side of Port Lincoln, in between Arno Bay and Tumby Bay”.

“You don’t go through the town. You have to turn off to go into it. And if you blink, you will miss the turn-off,” he said.

“When I grew up, there were probably 500 people in the community and two class rooms with 50 kids in each. But now there is one class room with about 20. No one has kids anymore. The drought has forced the farmers out and people might only have one or two kids instead of having six.”

Football has taken Greenwood from Port Neill to the larger town of Whyalla and then to the South Australian capital, where he was playing for Port Adelaide in the SANFL before being drafted by North Melbourne in 2007.

He left Arden St after being third in North Melbourne’s best-and-fairest in 2014 to join the Magpies and now stands just one win away from playing in a grand final for Collingwood.

“Since I have come across, I have always looked at the younger boys coming through and thought ‘Geez, we are going to something good one day’ and we actually only now just starting to gel as a team and I am really confident and happy with what we have been able to do,” he said.

But through it all surfing has remained a constant. It is a love that took him up and down the Eyre Peninsula as a kid, the motivating factor in a recent decision to buy a house near Rye’s back beach on the Mornington Peninsula and a joy that takes him to Bali each off-season with former Kangaroos teammate Daniel Pratt, who is now an assistant coach at West Coast.

“I just love talking about surfing. It is my one big joy. I absolutely love it. Just looking back on it, I used to get in the water in any conditions,” he told The Australian. “The boards that we used to surf on, the fibreglass was cracking. I had a wet suit with a rip down the middle.

“I didn’t have much those days, but I loved it. We were a bit oblivious to everything else that went on in the outside world.”

When he was making the transition to a new home at Collingwood, his background on the board facilitated friendships but also the occasional debate about where best to catch a wave.

Jarryd Blair, a premiership Pie in 2010, grew up in Wonthaggi. Former Cat Travis Varcoe spent his time on the Surf Coast while at Geelong. And each still prefers their own idyllic location, according to Greenwood.

“Blairy loves it but he is biased though. Whenever we want to go for a surf, he will want to go to (Phillip) Island. Someone else will want to go to the Surf Coast. I am in between. I’d rather go to Rye,” he said. “But once we are finished, it is good to have an uninterrupted six to eight weeks where you can pick and choose, stay down the beach a bit, go to Bali a couple of weeks and get some waves.”

Surfing provides a strong benefit for his football. Greenwood acknowledges he can be “pretty intense sometimes, a lot of times, and I tend to overthink things and a lot of times it is quite hard to quieten down what is going on in your mind”.

The left-footer, who has played 133 games, overcomes those stresses, which no doubt will this week include the possible match-up on a mate in Martin, by meditating, taking his dog for a walk or braving the brisk wintry water.

“When you are out in the water, it is like meditation. You are always concentrating on the water,” he said.

“You are never thinking about what is happening on land. You are never thinking about what you had for breakfast, what you had for lunch, what your worries are. You are just looking out on the horizon.

“Sometimes you are looking out for sharks, or where everyone else is, but that is a part of meditation, focusing on nothing. I find you always get out of the water after 20 to 30 minutes — I mean, you have no phone on you — and I can’t think of any better way to decompress, I wouldn’t have thought. It is really beneficial for your mental health.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...h/news-story/30de47a6734ebd35e542e51f335b17ac
 
^

Great insight there.

I get his love of the surf or having a love away from football. Relaxing, fun, enjoyable, focus building.

For some it’s water, some the track (horses) :) , or could be reading or travelling etc etc
 

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Put him on gaz and stop that influence going into geelongs forward 50. Huge way to winning if Abletts influence is curbed


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
We haven’t tagged all year. The chances of us starting tagging out of the blue in the Qualifying Final is close to zero.

Adding to that, Greenwood has been playing on a HB flank all year, and playing well mind you. They aren’t going to throw out something thats working.
 
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