How a Sydney boy fulfilled his dream

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  • SWANSBEST
    On the Rookie List
    • Jan 2003
    • 868

    How a Sydney boy fulfilled his dream

    How a Sydney boy fulfilled his dream

    By TIM MORRISSEY

    April 30, 2004

    AS a boy growing up in Sydney, Aaron Rogers put up with years of ridicule and teasing for choosing AFL ahead of rugby league. But it was all worth it.


    Tomorrow, Rogers will fulfil his boyhood dream of playing for the Swans when he makes his senior AFL debut against Essendon on the MCG, coming off the interchange bench.

    "I went through so much grief playing AFL as a child," said Rogers.


    "I had the short-shorts [taunt] and what are you playing [AFL] for, come and play rugby league with us ... I stuck through it and it's paid off now.


    "I don't think league would have been a good option for me. I'd probably have a bigger nose than I do now.


    "You've got to have thick skin to play AFL in Sydney but I'm glad I did and my parents have been behind me the whole way."


    Rogers, one of six former Sydney junior AFL players on the Swans' 2004 list, is the latest "poster boy" for the growth of AFL in this rugby league dominated town.


    His promotion and the return of promising young utility Luke Ablett comes at the expense of two of Rogers' junior teammates, midfielder Jarrad McVeigh and defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who have both been named emergencies this week.


    Rogers, 20, admitted he was almost lost to the sport completely after the 25th pick overall in the 2001 national draft spent the past two years with the Melbourne Demons, failing to break into senior football.


    Rogers was delisted by the Dees at the end of 2003 but couldn't believe his luck when the Swans threw him a lifeline and picked up the former St George junior in the pre-season draft.


    "It was a really tough time in October last year when I got delisted and didn't know which way I was going with my career," said Rogers.


    "Now I couldn't be happier at the Swans."


    WMP
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