Moller ready for the challenge

By Rosie Duffy

With pick 46 in the recent 2012 AFL rookie draft, the Fremantle Dockers officially welcomed 19 year-old Craig Moller to their list.

A NSW Scholarship holder, Moller began his scholarship with the Dockers in 2009 as a 14-year-old.

From Barden Ridge, 30km south of Sydney, the 203cm player was NSW’s best player at the under-16 national titles and is also considered one of the best basketball talents in the country.

Craig Moller was recruited to the club as an add-on rookie in November after spending three years in the NSW AFL Scholarship program and the eighteen-year-old is hoping to model his game around ruckmen and teammates Aaron Sandilands and Jon Griffin.

Moller said that during his time in the scholarship program, Sandilands often took time out of his schedule to offer some guidance to the budding ruckman.

“I was in and out of the club a couple of times during the year and when I was here he would always give me a bit of time and offer a bit of advice,” Moller said.

Moller was 14 when the club first approached him about being apart of the NSW Scholarship program.

For the past three years he has been living in Sydney, and played for Sydney University in the North East Australian Football League last season.

During this time the club kept in close contact, and Moller worked with Fremantle development coach Steve Grace.

Moller said that the time in the scholarship program was extremely beneficial to his development and his hope of forging an AFL career.

“They basically monitored me and gave me the best opportunity to try and get onto the AFL list, which I’ve now been able to do and hopefully I can continue to move forward,” Moller said.

Having never lived out of home before, Moller has had to venture out his comfort zone coming over to WA.

He is currently living in Coogee with Jon Griffin, Lee Spurr and Cam Sutcliffe and is planning on moving into a host family in the new year.

Moller said it has been a great learning curve living with other AFL players and that Griffin has shared stories of his own path into the AFL.

“He’s told me he was about the same age and same weight when he first came into the system, so he’s been giving me a bit of advice.”

Although he is living with three other players, Moller said the house still has a family feel to it.

“Spurr is a bit of a dad in the house, does all the cooking and the nagging. Me and Cam are kind of the kids that roam around.”

Moller feels as though the time in the scholarship program has given him a bit of a head start in his AFL career and is looking forward to the challenges ahead.

“Being able to come in, first day of pre-season when the first to third years were back gave me a couple of extra weeks, compared to the new recruits this year,” Moller said.

“And obviously the few years I have spent in the scholarship has given me an opportunity to meet some of the boys and form good bonds.