What was involved in your journey to becoming a professional sportsperson since leaving Concordia?
A...
What was involved in your journey to becoming a professional sportsperson since leaving Concordia?
After graduating high school, I was directionless. At least conventionally. I told my father I will try for two years to become a professional footballer and if it doesn’t eventuate then I’ll consider my options. Looking back, I am clueless as to what alternative pathways I would have taken and am astounded at my audacity.
In 2017, I was playing amateur level football for Grads Red, a collegiate league team in Adelaide, after filling in for my brother's team as goalkeeper. I was training once per week (maximum) and had no real ambition to take it further. It was only at the prompting of some significant individuals in my orbit that I began to consider the outrageous idea of becoming a professional. At the end of the 2017 season, the president of the club had me over for a beer shortly before graduation and jokingly ‘kicked me out’ of Grads Red to pursue a higher level. He also hired me that night as a delivery driver for his dry-cleaning company after I joked that he should hire me once I finish school. By November 2017, I was employed as a dry-cleaning delivery driver and had signed a semi-pro contract with West Adelaide Hellas.
Getting ‘kicked out’ was the beginning of a rather adventurous and unexpected journey to becoming a professional footballer. After all, it was less than a year later, training every day and often twice, I had signed for Adelaide United’s youth team.
What are your career highlights so far?
Strangely, over the 6 years since I began to play professionally, it was not something I did on the pitch that I consider my greatest achievement.
I played for Adelaide United between 2018-2021, until I mutually terminated my contract in the early part of the 2021-22 season to pursue other opportunities. I was then offered a two-year contract in January 2022, contingent on certain health choices I would make, but because of personal values I considered indispensable I rejected the offer and continued to play in the SA National Premier League (the equivalent of the SANFL). This decision to reject a potential future in professional football is personally something I consider my proudest achievement as I stayed true to my beliefs despite the lure of attractive gains.
I then went on to win the treble in SA football in 2022: the minor championship, the cup and the premiership with Adelaide City. I also received the personal honour of being named Goalkeeper of the Year and given a starting place on the Team of the Season. Furthermore, I broke the record for lowest goals conceded as a goalkeeper in an NPL season. All this seemed like vindication I made the right choice.
Since then, I have had the privilege of returning to professional football, where I now play for Melbourne City Football Club. In June 2025 I was an A-League champion, celebrating like someone out of a Hollywood movie. It was surreal.
Apart from football, what do you fill your time with?
I consider cultivating the mind an essential ingredient in becoming a whole individual and therefore devote many hours to reading books and studying history among a plethora of other disciplines.
I have taught myself German since the early months of the pandemic and have since acquired a university standard proficiency, which might be zukünftig (a lovely German adjective for 'in the future') rather useful as university is free in Germany.
I am also busy with a couple of business projects, one of which includes an intellectual and character growth journal based on the strategies I use for daily improvement, albeit still in development. Additionally, I have begun teaching myself another language.
Above all, I consider relationships to be the bedrock of a happy life. CoTee and conversation, a walk with a friend or savouring banana bread with Nana or my folks are my greatest joys.
How has Concordia shaped your life?
While I was there, Concordia provided a place that allowed for fruitful relationships to mature and also for important skills to unfold. A seminal experience for me was speaking in Chapel in front of the entire cohort of peers. I remember thinking, if I can talk in front of hundreds of individuals, what else could I achieve! Remember, as a directionless and pretty useless schoolboy, this realisation is of no small import. Concordia provided that opportunity as well as others like it. Given the uniform nature of the Australian Curriculum, providing opportunities like this are crucial to distinguishing yourself as an elite school.
The relationships I developed were hugely significant for my growth. I owe a special mention to Stewart Kleidon, someone who taught me the value of critical thinking and living true to your beliefs. He inspired in me a love for learning that I discovered after taking his courses. His generosity of time after class was a huge chance to probe deeper into the nature of reality, when instead I’m sure he could have been enjoying a flat white and a cookie in the staffroom.
Connie Held also deserves a special mention, for her wit and love for language, as does the late and beloved Mr Gilchrist.
These relationships and lasting influences cannot be understated. I hold them to be invaluable.
What would you say to current students considering sport as a career?
Serious individuals should behave like a professional well before they become one. The industry is cutthroat and only those who make the necessary sacrifices survive. Aside, from lowering your carbon footprint by riding your bicycle to school, I’d highly encourage a strict regime of good sleep, a conscious approach to nutrition and shunning the high life of partying and alcohol. It sucks, I know, but it’s what it takes, and I cannot emphasise this strongly enough—train harder than everyone else because talent only gets you so far. Most importantly, dream big and do everything you can to make your dream a reality. There is, however, no rush to pick your pathway in life. After all, I’m still discovering my own.
Thank you for reading my story.
