ONE year ago, newly drafted Cat Ollie Dempsey made the decision to finish his studies with a year of school football at Carey Grammar in Melbourne, having not played the sport in four years.
Twelve months later he was standing on the turf of GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, holding his very own Cats jumper with number 28 on the back.
“It’s been crazy,” he says.
“Twelve months ago I just thought I’d play with my mates and Carey and just have a good year of footy.
“It turned out alright and here I am.”
Dempsey was a talented junior basketballer, representing Victoria, the Hawthorn Magic and Knox Raiders as he hit the hardwood of Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs.
The intense training regimen basketball requires prompted Dempsey to take a step away from the sport in his important final year of secondary school.
“It was really just to play with my mates because I was focusing on my studies for year 12, basketball was a bit too full on,” he says.
“I played footy and basketball both early, but had to choose basketball because it’s full on from early.”
From the moment Dempsey picked up a football for Carey, it was evident the spring-heeled basketballer had an abundance of talent.
After 11 goals in five games including a six-goal haul against Wesley College, Dempsey was catching the eyes of AFL recruiters.
“From the first game I was just like – ‘this is alright’,” he says.
“I just kept improving and then I had a bit of interest (from AFL clubs) and that’s when I realised I could actually do this.
“I knew through my manager, that in the holidays around July, there were a couple of clubs interested and one of those was Geelong which was cool.”
Geelong’s interest resulted in the Cats taking a chance on the untried covert with pick 15 in the 2021 Rookie draft.
With less than ten games of football in the last four years now under his belt, Dempsey is keen to make up for lost time.
“This club is awesome so it’s really good for my pathway. It will be awesome to get repetitions in and really experience that professional level football,” he says.
“I just want to get reps in because I haven’t had those footy reps over the years so that would be really good.”
