Learning to compete The redemption of Josh Schache

Josh Schache knew what he lacked. He understood the essential element that was missing from his make-up as an AFL footballer.

Competitiveness.

Joash Schache has established himself as a key member of the Bulldogs’ line-up.Credit:Getty Images

In this finals series, just the basic of “being competitive” or “making it a scrap as much as you can” has been Schache’s simple ambition, and also the instruction of his coach Luke Beveridge. Finals, Schache said, “is all contest”.

“As long as I do that, I guess that hasn’t been one of my stronger suits, like obviously in previous years, I haven’t been as competitive as what I need to be,” Schache admitted.

And so he’s competed, as directed. Forced the ball to ground. Fought for ground balls. “I’ve worked on that a hell of a lot,” he said of his competitiveness.

To compete became his main focus. “Pretty much. Just my mindset within a game and being competitive, not just for parts of a game, but for the whole game and being more consistent with the way I do it,” Schache said.

And, then, having met those basic KPIs, he’s found the footy on the lead - as he did in a memorable performance, when the Dogs obliterated Port Adelaide.

Schache took on Port’s All-Australian key defender and interceptor Aliir Aliir, who was red-hot against Geelong in the previous final. Schache, as footage from behind the goals demonstrated, played at the back of Aliir’s shoulder, as if the Bulldog forward was a defender.

He described the Aliir assignment thus: “Putting those defensive actions into place a little bit. I just really wanted to be as competitive as I could and bring the ball to ground as much as I could ... if I couldn’t mark it.”

Beveridge’s instructions were nothing fancy: “Just being really competitive and nullifying his [Aliir’s] impact ... just being competitive and not letting him take intercepts. I was excited, yeah, by the opportunity to give it a crack.”

But Schache not only negated Aliir, he did mark the footy, quite frequently and so has become, during this finals campaign - one he mightn’t have been part of, if not for teammate Josh Bruce’s misfortune - a classic redemption story.

Scache celebrates a goal for the Bulldogs.Credit:Getty Images

Schache’s role, from his testimony and what we have seen, is essentially to occupy an opposition gun defender, such as Aliir, and then hit the scoreboard if possible; if he occupies a gun defender, this also makes it easier for the mega-talented aerialist Aaron Naughton to take flight and for ruckman/forward “big Timmy” English when stationed forward.

Schache’s story has been likened to that of Tom Boyd, the 2016 premiership hero, in that he was a tall forward recruit, drafted early (pick No.2 in 2016) by a northern team (Brisbane Lions), who has flowered in a finals series.

Schache’s success, however, has been less spectacular than Boyd’s in 2016 (when he might have won the Norm Smith Medal), and has been predicated on playing his role for the team - a mantra that he repeats, over and again.

At 24, Schache says he has matured and is better able to apply himself and to cope with the rigours of AFL than he did as a teenager lumbered with great expectations, the Lions having traded him to the Bulldogs after his second season up north.

“This year, in a way, I feel I’ve matured a lot this year, coming from the hub. I feel like I was playing good footy even though I wasn’t playing in the AFL side,” said Schache, adding that he “stuck with myself and believed in myself and [knew] that once opportunity come, I’d take it.”

If Schache’s turnaround has been visible in the finals, in which he’s started as a somewhat defensive tall forward, he reckons he learned from a stint in defence late in the season, when he played a little down back in the VFL, over two weeks, and then was promoted up to play that role in round 19 against grand final opponents, the Demons.

Schache gets a kick away against Melbourne this year.Credit:Getty Images

He had never played once in defence until that quarter against North and then a half against the Swans in the VFL. Suddenly, he was playing that position against the Dees.

“It was something different and something that sort of excited me as well and sort of gave me a kick and something to look forward to coming into the club each day to learn something new,” Schache said.

Schache agreed that his time in defence had helped him play defensively in attack.

“It gives you another look on what defenders don’t like, being in defence you can see what makes it hard for a defender when a forward is playing a particular way. I guess vice-versa as well.”

One would expect, given the threat posed to the Dogs by this season’s All-Australian tall backs Steven May and Jake Lever, that Schache would find himself playing a similar role in the grand final to his Aliir assignment.

“Obviously I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be a similar role ... playing next to ‘Naughty’ and big Timmy down there as well. They’re bloody good players and can mark the ball well.”

Play your role. Compete. Bring it to ground. These are the lexicon of the role player, rather than the superstar. Schache says he always had the aerobic fitness and had to work on his speed.

Schache’s finals flourish, thus, is about meeting modest goals. Yet it’s also clear he relishes that he’s not being asked to boot four or five and be the difference.

Maturity has helped him to cope better with the scrutiny that accompanies a top two pick and young key forward.

Had the external pressures been a downer? “Yeah, I guess it’s hard not to early on, when you don’t have those coping mechanisms in place and when you don’t know how to control it to the best of your ability, it can be pretty tough.”

He wondered, at stages, if he would make it as a long-term AFL player. “I guess you always have those thoughts that come to you, to your head every - I guess you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have them ... I feel like I’ve matured in a way, I knew I had that belief.

Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via Twitter or email.

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