Tara Murray
Western Jets’ Keighton Matofai-Forbes was keeping an eager eye on Geelong’s picks in the AFL national draft.
After an injury-riddled two seasons, Matofai-Forbes wasn’t on the radar of a lot of clubs coming into the draft.
But all it takes is just one club being interested and for Matofai-Forbes, it was the Cats who selected him at pick 69.
“I think it will settle in soon,” he said. “On draft night, I thought it might happen.
“I spoke with Geelong in the lead up and if I was going to get selected it was going to be by them.
“I was hopeful. I didn’t think too much about it after they selected Joe [Pike] with their first pick.”
The nerves turned to tears when his name was called out with plenty of emotion in the room.
Matofai-Forbes had always played football, but didn’t think about getting drafted until the last few years.
He played two years at Burnside Heights and then moved to Hillside for the rest of his junior days.
The forward then moved to Essendon District Football League powerhouse Keilor.
“The culture down there is really good and I had a lot of friends down there,” he said. “They’ve got some good coaching staff under Mick McGuane.”
Matofai-Forbes kicked nine goals in his first two senior games for the Blues, while also on the Western Jets list.
That’s when he started to think more about his football.
“It was about that time I seriously considered taking my footy very seriously.”
A couple of hamstring injuries limited his impact the past two years, but still showed enough for the Cats to take notice.
This year he managed seven Coates Talent League matches, while managing to play one game for Vic Metro at the under-18 national championships.
The year before he managed only four games, but did enough in the pre-season to be named the Jets co-captain with Lucca Grego.
“I made becoming captain something that I had focused on,” he said. “I was passionate that I could lead by example and I was really proud to be captain alongside Lucca.”
The two co-captains were the only Jets picked up in the draft.
Matofai-Forbes said the two spoke and it was a pretty emotional moment between the two of them.
No time was wasted in getting involved at the Cats, with Matofai-Forbes and the rest of the first to third year players going away on a camp.
Matofai-Forbes said it was good to get to know his new teammates.
Now he’s just focused on making a good impression on the track.
“I’m not thinking about my first game,” he said. “I want to get my fitness up and be the best player I can be at this club.
“I want to get the body right and everything will roll from there.”
