Scully’s star rises

By Paul Pickering
TOM Scully had the round seven AFL Rising Star nomination sewn up by 10pm last Friday night.
There were still seven games to be played for the weekend, but it was hard to imagine a more impressive performance than his 39-possession best-on-ground outing against the Western Bulldogs.
The Berwick teenager, playing just his seventh game of senior footy, almost willed his Demons over the line on a rain-soaked MCG.
His 18 last-quarter possessions – just one shy of the league record – weren’t enough to avoid a four-point defeat, but provided a glimpse of the extraordinary work-rate and ball-winning ability for which he was known at junior level.
Scully, whose Rising Star nomination was confirmed on Monday, said even he was surprised by his dominant final term.
“It wasn’t until I saw the stats after the game that I realised I had that much of it in the last quarter,” the former Berwick and Narre Warren junior said on Tuesday.
“It was pretty tight and I was just trying to work as hard as I could, because it was almost survival of the fittest in those conditions. All the bigger bodies in the midfield were struggling a bit on the heavy ground, so with me being a bit lighter I was just getting across the ground a bit better.”
The former Vic Metro and Dandenong Stingrays captain said he had finally returned to peak fitness after recovering from the cracked kneecap that put him out of last year’s TAC Cup grand final.
And with the emerging Demons sitting just outside the top eight, the number one draft pick could hardly have asked for a better start to his AFL career.
“I’m starting to feel a bit more comfortable at the level,” he said.“The mood around the club is good and everyone’s optimistic about the way we’re going. We know we’ve got a long way to go, but we can see the improvement and that’s the really exciting thing for the group.”
Not surprisingly, Scully has become a poster boy for the club, which recently signed a 30-year partnership commitment with the City of Casey.
He is an ambassador for the recently-launched ‘Don’t Drive Like a Demon’ road safety program and has joined other Melbourne players in promoting the ‘Read/Write Like a Demon’ literacy program.
And the promotional role sits comfortably with Scully, who still lives at his family home in Berwick.
“I’ve got a few extra responsibilities (in the Casey region), having grown up here, but I’m happy to promote the club in any way possible to help grow our supporter base,” he said.
Melbourne has dubbed this Saturday’s clash with West Coast at the ’G as its City of Casey Round, and participants of the ‘Read/Write Like a Demon’ campaign will form a guard of honour for the Dees as they run onto the ground.
The City of Casey will also be promoted on the club banner, in the Footy Record and on the MCG scoreboard during the day.
Scully is hoping that plenty of other locals can get out and support the Demons on Saturday, which, fittingly, is also his 19th birthday.