FOR THE first three years Matthew Haynes was in the company of Nick Vlastuin, he had no idea what his actual name was.
After a couple of years in the junior talent pathway together, Haynes finally found out that the kid he had been calling ‘Tigger’, actually went by the name of Nick.
Haynes and Vlastuin came to TAC Cup club the Northern Knights as “shy and eager 14-year-olds” according to region manager Peter Kennedy, only just at the very beginning of their football journey.
The nickname ‘Tigger’, in reference to A.A. Milne’s character in Winnie the Pooh, was given to Vlastuin by his mother who identified that her child was “bouncing all over the place” ever since he had started to walk. When the Knights’ talent managers caught the drift, the name stuck.
Finding out Vlastuin’s given name turned out to be pretty important, too, with the now 18-year-olds transitioning through the Knights’ junior development program, working their way in to the Under-16 Victoria Metro team, earning spots in the AIS-AFL Academy and becoming teammates this year at the Knights and the victorious Under-18 Victoria Metro team.
They will part this year as much-improved footballers, and, significantly, fully rounded people.
Despite their almost parallel football journeys, they have distinctively different styles on the field and are poles apart off it.
Haynes’ game is built on outside run where he can utilise his pace in the open spaces. As a precursor to that, Haynes turned his attention to football in 2009 after winning gold medals at national level in the 100m and long jump events as a 15-year-old.
While Vlastuin (pronounced floss-tone) thrives on the congested situations so that he can use his body strength to bullock his way through traffic.
Vlastuin finished VCE at St Helena Secondary College last year, deferred university and has been working as a lifeguard at his local gym. Haynes, on the other hand, is preparing himself for his end-of-year VCE exams at Carey Grammar.
Vlastuin is likely to feature late in the first or early in the second round in the upcoming NAB AFL Draft. Whereas, it is difficult to place where Haynes sits in the draft order with opinions amongst recruiters varied.
Regardless, both Vlastuin and Haynes know they’ve done everything possible to have their names called out at the Draft, which is staged on the Gold Coast on November 22.
During their stint at the AIS-AFL Academy, Vlastuin and Haynes were privileged to have former AFL stars Brett Kirk and Tom Harley as their mentors.
One thing both Kirk and Harley drilled in to the boys was to put in the work when no one else would be, all in the chase of gaining a “competitive edge”.
So on Christmas and New Year’s Day, Vlastuin and Haynes rose early to get ready for core strength sessions and then sweat it out on gruelling runs.
“If you line up on an opponent, you can think to yourself he probably didn’t run on Christmas and New Year’s day so you’ve got that mental edge on him,” Vlastuin told AFL.com.au.
“It’s just about knowing you’ve done the work.”
They both took that mindset in to pre-season training this year and worked together to improve and refine each other’s games.
Vlastuin helped Haynes focus on his contested ball work, while Haynes took Vlastuin through the finer points of where to run to find space.
“Tigger flattened me a couple of times and he showed me the standard of where I needed to be at,” Haynes says.
Vlastuin says his and Haynes’ relationship is fostered on keeping things competitive.
“I hate it when he beats me,” Vlastuin says.
Anton Grbac, AFL Victoria’s Metro talent manager, described Vlastuin as a quiet but deeply respected leader amongst his peers.
The Metro playing group nominated Vlastuin as their captain at the start of the Championships, while Haynes was selected as vice captain.
“Tigger ticks all the boxes in what we believe a competitive animal is,” Grbac says.
“I keep saying this to recruiters, ‘You take him to your club and every coach will fall in love with the way he plays footy.'”
Conversely, Haynes is much more outspoken and very popular amongst his circle of influence.
“Haynesy’s very amiable. He’s probably one of the really good characters to have in the changerooms,” Grbac says.
Their contrasting styles of leadership complemented the other, as Vlastuin and Haynes took Metro to back-to-back division one under-18 titles.
Vlastuin was one of Metro’s key players, earning an All-Australian guernsey, while Haynes’ overlap run was pivotal to the team’s success.
Grbac says Haynes has had the rare quality of being able to elevate his level of play the higher he has progressed with his football.
“It seems as though Matty feels more comfortable within himself when he’s playing in good company,” Grbac says.
Despite all their differences, Haynes and Vlastuin respect each other and people respect them.
“They’ve both got very different personalities, yet they’re in pursuit of the same goal,” Kennedy said.
Grbac agrees, saying: “It’s just incredible how two players who are chalk and cheese in their football are still good teammates and get along. That’s the thing about footy. It takes all types to play the game.”
