St Kilda Saints’ Mattaes Phillipou on his future, soccer plans

The Bontempelli comparability

Phillipou, the No.10 choose within the 2022 draft who Essendon and Hawthorn gave severe consideration to even earlier, performed all 24 video games in his debut season, below coach Ross Lyon, who famously drives excessive requirements.

Good judges, corresponding to North Melbourne’s twin premiership participant King and Melbourne nice Garry Lyon, imagine the 190-centimetre forward-midfielder has an enormous future within the recreation.

The Bontempelli comparability just isn’t a brand new one, and Phillipou was accustomed to it when recruiters quizzed him two years in the past on who he performed like.

But it surely was his reply that caught amused expertise scouts off guard, and shortly grew to become a speaking level main into that yr’s draft. The teenage prospect informed them Bontempelli performed like him. Nat Fyfe got here up, too.

“I’ve at all times been a believer in believing in your self and never having limitations,” Phillipou mentioned. “I assume we’ve received comparable taking part in types. It was how I worded it, however I don’t retract the assertion.”

Anybody unfamiliar with Phillipou could also be getting the improper impression about him. A self-professed introvert, the second-year AFL footballer merely desires to be the perfect he could be, and was happy that King noticed Bontempelli-like qualities in him.

Phillipou’s confidence comes from place, and is emboldened by an insatiable work-rate that he calls for of himself to present him each probability to achieve his lofty targets.

“To have that mentioned about me – somebody who hasn’t actually carried out something but – it’s like, ‘Wow’,” he mentioned.

“There are different individuals who see the imaginative and prescient that I see. It’s laborious to not get excited by that. However, I at all times simply try to convey it again to the one approach I’m even going to get near that’s if I proceed to work, and proceed watching imaginative and prescient with ‘BJ’ [St Kilda great-turned-assistant Brendon Goddard].”

Phillipou additionally has an admirer in twin Saints membership champion Jack Steele, who informed this masthead that Phillipou’s distinctive methods took some adjusting to however have been “very refreshing”.

“He got here in and did issues his approach and didn’t actually fear about what everybody else was doing,” Steele mentioned.

“He’s received a transparent imaginative and prescient about what he desires to get out of his profession … [and] I like that he places his finest foot ahead and needs to be the perfect participant and contributor for the membership as doable.

“I’ll ask him, ‘What’s on for the weekend, mate?’ and he’ll say, ‘Oh, I’ll in all probability relax on Saturday, then on Sunday, I’d pop in to do some contact’.

“Most individuals wouldn’t take into consideration coming into the membership of their spare time, however he doesn’t see it as work. It’s what he likes to do, so you may’t complain when somebody’s received that kind of work ethic and angle in the direction of footy.”

Why he’s laborious on himself

Phillipou is his harshest critic.

Most younger gamers take years to determine the professionalism and requirements required to make it at AFL degree, and lots of by no means do. Diet was one space Phillipou wanted schooling in, and it was not that he was consuming poorly – he simply didn’t perceive the way to gas his physique correctly.

That information hole compounded his well-intentioned want to coach as long and hard as doable, however teammate Mason Wooden, who he briefly lived with, helped upskill him.

Wooden taught Phillipou about macronutrients, a time period that describes the vitamins – particularly carbohydrates, fats and protein – that your physique requires to carry out at its finest.

He first got here throughout macros in school however brushed the science off again then as too difficult, till Wooden simplified it for him. Phillipou was cross with himself that it took too lengthy for him to get there, believing he was able to realizing all this earlier than he lobbed at Moorabbin.

“That’s how I see it, and that’s how I view myself,” he mentioned. “At instances, you’ve received to be cautious as a result of you may drive your self down a darkish gap with ideas like that, however I need to preserve that as a result of [it will help me] get to the place I need to get to faster.”

Phillipou now makes certain to pile in at the least 500 energy for breakfast to prepared himself for coaching, whereas beforehand he would devour not even half that.

“I might come to coaching feeling sick, and begin having coffees, and I used to be like, ‘I reckon it’s the coffees making me sick’ as a result of I’d by no means had espresso earlier than,” he mentioned.

“I had low power, could be mentally drained, and I used to be like, ‘You’re not working laborious sufficient’, which makes it worse. Then, you completely drop again, and also you’re not doing sufficient, or what I really feel just isn’t sufficient as a result of I at all times attempt to do extra, and I can’t hit that as a result of I’m not consuming sufficient.”

There was even a recreation early within the season final yr when coach Lyon informed Fox Footy that Phillipou had “cooked himself” whereas coaching an excessive amount of within the lead-up.

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Reining himself in and making certain he does swap off continues to be a work-in-progress, however one thing the younger gun mentioned he was getting higher at.

Phillipou’s approach of doing that’s taking part in video video games, most frequently Fortnite, in opposition to mates again in South Australia and youthful brother Jevan – one other vibrant AFL prospect who additionally excels on the basketball court docket and as a decathlete.

He’s additionally into motion pictures and music – he loves the Rocky movies and usually has American rap and Nineties hip hop in his ear buds. However, as at all times with Phillipou, there’s a catch to his enjoyable moments.

“The music will get me hyped. I discover getting excited and wound up is extra enjoyable than forcing myself to modify off,” he mentioned.

“I really feel just like the extra I attempt to power enjoyable; the more serious it will get with me. I’ve received to have every little thing carried out for the day to only naturally chill out … I really feel prefer it’s extra of a response to if I’ve carried out the fitting factor.”

Phillipou’s footy bucket record

Phillipou is a younger man in a rush, and has already graduated to coaching extra with the midfielders after predominantly taking part in as a ahead final season.

St Kilda’s 1966 VFL premiership stays the one prize of their cabinet, however their 2022 first-round draftee is hellbent on altering that.

Negotiations are effectively superior to increase Phillipou’s time as a Saint, and he desires to repay the membership with a protracted and, in fact, profitable profession within the crimson, white and black.

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“I’ve received plenty of excessive targets for myself individually, and team-wise, I need to win plenty of premierships,” he mentioned.

“I need to play plenty of video games, and ideally, I need to try this right here. Actually, it’s that easy, and to be sincere, if I might put it into one which means – it’s simply to attain my full potential.”

How about All-Australian accolades? Brownlow Medals?

“I really feel like should you requested me that query a yr in the past, I might have mentioned, ‘Undoubtedly’,” Phillipou mentioned.

“If I proceed to do every little thing I can, each day, and commit myself to the habits that’ll get me there, yeah, I imagine I can. However I don’t need to put a restrict on myself; the identical approach I don’t need to put an excessive amount of strain on myself and say I’m assured to get right here.”

The Saints performed in three grand finals within the earlier Lyon period, together with the drawn one in 2010, however have been unable to interrupt by way of regardless of having the likes of Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Stephen Milne and Leigh Montagna.

The present St Kilda squad lacks that top-end high quality, however Phillipou is much from the one promising younger participant, with Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Mitch Owens, Marcus Windhager and Anthony Caminiti displaying a lot.

There may be additionally nice hope for gamers corresponding to Darcy Wilson, Olli Hotton, Isaac Keeler, Matt Allison, Lance Collard, James Van Es and Angus Hastie, whereas Max King (23) and recruit Liam Henry (22) aren’t that a lot older.

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“These guys are final professionals and ferociously aggressive, and it’s so thrilling as a result of I do know that’s what it’s going to take if we need to ever get to the extent we need to get to,” Phillipou mentioned.

“It’s laborious to place into phrases, simply the considered [potentially playing in a flag for the Saints] – however I do know it’s doable. All the fellows right here – the coaches, the gamers, the individuals who I work together with – all imagine it’s doable.

“I don’t put a restrict on myself, and I’m additionally not placing a restrict on what’s doable as a membership.”

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