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BRAD MORAN Background Information

Background

Born in Solihull, England, and raised in Stratford on Avon, he is the youngest of three children to Martyn and Jan Moran. His father played soccer at Aston Villa to the age of 15 until his professional career was cut short by injury. But according to family legend, England was becoming "too dangerous, and the weather and culture was depressing". So they packed up and looked for a new home. They chose Australia specifically so that Brad, a junior representative soccer player before earning selection in the English Under 14 rugby Academy, might pursue a career in rugby.

He was enrolled in Year 10 at The Southport School, a prestigious secondary school on the Gold Coast which counts among its recent old boys triple Brisbane Lions AFL premiership ruckman Clark Keating and dual rugby league / rugby union international Mat Rogers.

There he excelled first in basketball as a member of the school's First V in Year 10. Thereafter it was rowing. In 2002, his second year at the school and his first full year, he was in the First VIII and was judged Best Oarsman in a crew which finished seventh at the 2003 Australian titles and set a national Under 18 record for 6km.

But a significant change in his sporting landscape had occurred earlier when, as he explains, he had a falling out at school after the rowing season and chose not to play school rugby. Instead, on the casual advice of a friend, he took up football at Surfers Paradise. And that he did for the first time in June 2003. In the same year, his first season, he was runner-up in the Surfers Paradise Under 18 best & fairest despite missing the first eight games of the season and was best afield for a Zane Taylor Development Squad in a match against the Geelong Falcons.

Mark Browning, former Sydney Swans champion turned AFL Queensland Talent Manager, swooped on the enormously athletic Moran under the AFLQ Rookie Search Program . He was 200cm tall, could run and jump, and had outstanding general athleticism and hand-eye co-ordination. So, he invited him to join the State Under 18 squad in 2004 while completing his Year 12 studies in English, Maths B, Physics, Economics, Legal Studies and HPE.

But it was no easy path. Moran missed six weeks of the Queensland Scorpions preparations for the national championships with a broken wrist after playing two games at the State Under 18 carnival with the same injury.

He didn't enjoy a lot of game time at the 2004 national championships but was chosen to represent Queensland at Under 21 level thereafter and made his senior AFL Queensland debut for Southport under Norm Dare, a former Brisbane Bears senior AFL coach and long-time assistant-coach at North Melbourne and Geelong. After narrowly missing senior selection for the AFLQ grand final he was best afield in the reserves grand final.

At the AFL draft camp he posted a time of 2.78seconds for the 20m sprint to break the record which had stood to the credit of ex-Fremante flyer Steven Koops since 1995. For a player 200cm tall it was an extraordinary feat.

That was enough for the Kangaroos. They took a punt on the raw but promising teenager and selected him at No.58 in the 2004 AFL national draft. He had originally been earmarked by the Brisbane Lions, who were keen to take him in the second round. But when Cameron Wood, tipped by many to be a top 10 choice, was still available at the end of the first-round the Lions decided they couldn't overlook the West Adelaide giant. There was no need for another ruckman at the Gabba.

It was all to the benefit of the Kangaroos. And not only did they draft the confident English teenager but they allocated him the No.18 jumper worn previously by Wayne Carey, dual premiership captain, captain of the North Melbourne Team of the Century, and arguably the greatest AFL player of all time.

It was something of an inspired choice. Because initially Moran, without a background in AFL football, was blissfully unaware at first of the significance of the Carey factor. And after it became apparent to him what an extraordinary honour the club had paid him by making him the first player to wear the No.18 jumper after "The King" he set about making sure he would earn it. It even made big news in the local paper back in England.

Moran spent the entire 2005 season with Port Melbourne, the Kangaroos VFL affiliate, alternating between the seniors and reserves and finishing third in the reserves best & fairest. In 2006, when the Roos alliance changed to take in the Hobart-based Tassie Mariners, he played there. Until the penultimate game of the year.

In round 21 Moran was chosen for his AFL debut against Hawthorn in Launceston. Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley at the time likened the rise of the then 19-year-old to the AFL's Irish experiment in which the likes of Melbourne Brownlow Medalliat Jim Stynes and Sydney premiership defender Tadhg Kennelly had crossed from Gaelic Football to the AFL.

"It is a wonderful story," said Laidley. "You see him and he's a bit of physical specimen - he's 200cm and 100-odd kilos and he's very, very quick, so he's got all of those attributes, but he's still learning his footy. He'll probably play around about half a game or a little bit more (on debut) and we're just excited to see where he's at in his football development. He's probably only played 40 games of footy in his life and Norm Dare said if we could get 40 or 50 games into this guy, you might have something there," Laidley said. "Right now he's got a game purely on his competitive spirit and hardness and his willing to compete. The other part of it, there's a helluva lot still to work on and as long as he plays within his boundaries he'll be fine."

Moran did more than that. Much more. He had 21 possessions, 10 marks and 10 hit-outs in a 22-point loss which earned him the round 21 nomination for the AFL s coveted NAB Rising Star Award.

He followed up with another solid performance in the round 22 loss to Collingwood and so finished his second season in the AFL family far, far advanced from anything he could possibly have dreamed off when he and his family headed Down Under just five years earlier.

The extra opportunities Moran was looking for didn't come his way in 2007. He was named in the senior side in Round 1 and Round 8 but was a late withdrawal both times - a selection 'blind' - and was an emergency in Rounds 4-5-11-14-15-20. His only senior appearance came against West Coast at Telstra Dome in Round 19 when he came off the bench to play as a tall defender. Otherwise, he played with the Tasmanian side, wooden-spooners in the VFL under Daryn Cresswell, mainly at centre half back.

He was offered a new one-year contract with the Kangaroos and nothing more from a club wanting to continue their developmental investment in the ex-Englishman yet 'keep him on the edge' at the same time.

So, when the chance of a fresh start came via the Adelaide Crows he jumped at it, signing a new two-year deal and accepting a challenge from Crows coach Neil Craig and recruiting manager Matt Rendell to make the key defensive post at centre half back his own.