At just 21 years of age, Sam De Koning remains remarkably unflappable.
He’s showed it all across his breakout season manning up the AFL’s biggest and most dangerous forwards, and again in front of 91,000 at the MCG in final against Collingwood and the might of the Magpie Army last Saturday.
De Koning, facing the media this week, admitted he did take a second to take in the enormity of the day.
“It was pretty amazing actually, the whole atmosphere, all the crowd, all the Cats supporters out there, it was something to behold and I had to take a moment to take it all in,” he said.
Whether it’s plying his trade at VFL level, which he had done since joining the Cats with the 19th pick in the 2019 National Draft albeit with Covid interruptions, or as the starting full back in team on their way to a Preliminary Final, his focus is the same: play your role.
“It is different but I just try and stay the same every game,” he said.
“Whether it be 16 v 16 out the back of Metricon or 90,000 at the G', it's just playing my role, improving and developing, that's all I could do, and now that I get my opportunity there's just a few more people, that's the difference.”
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But let their be no mistake, despite a laid back nature befitting his adopted home town of Torquay on the Surf Coast, there’s a steely confidence behind the boyish looks.
“I remember playing in the VFL the last couple of years and witnessing finals and now it's just my time,” De Koning said.
“I think it's the right time for me and I feel like I’m putting games together and I'm building. But I'm still in the infancy of my career and hopefully, there's bigger things to come.”
Listening to him talk, it’s clear the environment at the Geelong Football Club can take a lot of credit for his development, whether that be the advice of the more experienced players – he namechecks Joel Selwood’s focus on club culture, or matching up on players the calibre of Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron each week at training.
“It's a privilege to play on those guys, they're greats of the game and it's just been good for me to get momentum through it because I know if I do a good job on them at training that I could go out and execute on the biggest stage.
“They're two of the best in the comp and it's a privilege to line up against them at training and go one on one with them because it's improving my game.”
