THERE is a trace of embarrassment in the voice of Adelaide midfielder Bernie Vince when he talks about the delight he felt after being dropped from the Woodville-West Torrens reserves.It was three seasons ago and the boy from the delightfully named Curramulka-Minlaton-Stansbury Crows on the Yorke Peninsula could head home every weekend from Adelaide to play footy with his mates again.
"I never saw my footy as going anywhere, I just loved playing it," the affable Vince said.
"I liked playing footy wherever it was and I wasn`t getting much of a game for the (WWT) Eagles so when I went home I wasn`t disappointed that I was dropped. I wasn`t disappointed at all. I know a lot of people who had goals to play AFL footy but I was never like that."
Fast-forward three years and Vince, 22, has become a hero to thousands.
Flattened during the last-man-standing Showdown against Port Adelaide in round three, Vince was able to shake off the daze from Daniel Motlop`s second-quarter bump and go on to win the Showdown medal for best-on-ground in just his 13th AFL game.
For Adelaide coach Neil Craig, the 24 touches and two important goals Vince kicked that evening as the Crows staggered to the line said as much about the future as the present.
"Congratulations to Bernie," Craig said. "He`s been threatening to play exceptional football and hopefully that`s a major step in his career."
Vince considers it his breakthrough game - the defining moment in a short career which proved to him that he belonged in the AFL.
"That was the game where I probably got the most belief in myself," he said.
"I thought `This is what it`s all about, this is what`s required, and I can do it`."
Having spent two months playing back in the bush during 2005, Vince was still living in Adelaide and training with WWT as he attempted to combine footy with an agricultural university degree at Roseworthy, 50km north of the city.
"The footy struggled because of my uni and uni struggled because of my footy. I couldn`t get back to footy training in time," Vince said.
"I put uni on hold to concentrate on my footy. Lucky I did."
As part of his unlikely renaissance, Vince was given another chance in the WWT reserves and spent some time in the midfield.
That is where Adelaide`s development manager, Alan Stewart, saw Vince do things which would make him a big-time footballer long before the easygoing country kid even thought about it.
"I can remember it quite clearly. It was at Woodville Oval in a reserves game," Stewart recalled the first time he saw Vince do something special.
"There was a very congested group of players on the wing and he came in and took the ball amongst eight or 10 players.
"He had beautiful composure. He didn`t panic. He got around a couple and got away a beautiful handball to a player who was free and running and away they went."
By the end of the season Vince was in the seniors and played in a losing grand final side, where Stewart saw more moments of magic.
"It just confirmed that he had to be on our list," said Stewart.
"Consequently we picked him a lot earlier than people expected (at 32)."
Vince will never forget draft day late in 2005. He was indulging in his other great sporting love, cricket.
A former South Australian country batsman at the national country championships, he was playing A Grade for Woodville and running late when the phone rang as he was dragging his cricket bag out of his ute.
"It was a call to tell me that I had been drafted. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur as television crews started to arrive. I don`t think I made too many because I can`t remember it."
Vince still sneaks in a few games of country cricket when he goes home during the summer, and misses the simple, old days of footy in winter and cricket in summer. But his commitment to football became absolute after last season when multiple club best-and-fairest Simon Goodwin sat Vince down and became his mentor.
"He asked me if I wanted to play well at this level or just float through, maybe play a few games and get kicked out after a couple of years like a lot of players," Vince recalled.
"Or did I really want to have a crack and not regret it later on, not die wondering. That`s when it clicked in my mind."
The proof was in the training as Vince began his pre-season early to develop a motor capable of allowing him to run in the midfield. The capacity of that motor will be a vital part of Adelaide`s hopes against Geelong`s potent midfield in Adelaide tonight.
