Many young kids dream of making the AFL but as Michael Irving gets ready to represent Victoria for a second time he’s better placed than most.
The 15-year-old Reservoir player has just been selected to play for his state in the School Sport Australia Championships for boys 15 and under, in Adelaide in July.
He knows the drill, having represented Victoria in the Under 12 championships three years ago, but he is just as excited now as he was then.
“I feel very happy and so privileged to be recognised as one of the best players in Victoria in my age group,” he says.
His brother, Ben, 18, competed in the championships at 15 and Irving was keen to follow his lead.
He applied online through the School Sport Victoria website and was one of 200 to try out. He survived the cuts and was picked in the final squad of 25.
He will be playing for Vic Metro, one of two Victorian representative teams – the other is Vic Country – and he says if the under 12 championships are anything to go by he expects to be victorious.
“We won the whole carnival that year. The closest any team got to us was South Australia and we beat them by about 60 points,” he says.
Irving says victory was all the sweeter because South Australia had dominated the championship for the best part of a decade.
“It was really good just to know us boys were the best in Australia at the time.”
Gleefully, he gets a week off school to play in the carnival and can still play for his local side, West Preston-Lakeside in the Northern Football League at the weekend.
The Roosters are third last but Irving is confident that they can climb the ladder and make finals.
“We’re only two games off at the moment,” he says. “The division is pretty even at the moment and basically anyone can make the finals from fi fth down to last place.”
It’s fair to say Irving’s football is in a good place, making representative squads and playing in division one of the under 16 competition in the NFL.
If it all goes well, he hopes to one day play for Richmond, the team he barracks for in the AFL, which he says is improving each week.
“They started the season off a bit rough but the team is going all right now. Their disposal is a lot better this year, they’re playing the percentages.
“I just think they’re much more suited to dry weather footy.”
