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The Monday press conference following a heavy defeat is one of the less palatable tasks to confront an AFL footballer.
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Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams has recently taken to speaking with the media on Mondays because he reasons the hard and broad-based questions are unlikely to be given adequate answers by any player.
In many cases, the captain is given the job of explaining the poor fortunes of his team to a press contingent with the benefit of plenty of time to prepare their ammunition – Monday’s experts.
So it was impressive indeed to view 22-year-old Crows midfielder Nathan van Berlo looking completely at home this week as he answered the multitude of queries confronting Adelaide after their startling 68-point loss at home to Geelong.
He came close in style and substance to the ever-dignified public speaking of club coach Neil Craig as he outlined what had gone wrong and what must be improved.
The articulate Van Berlo even managed a confident chuckle as he re-assured supporters that Adelaide’s list contains more than enough talent within it to match the best sides, regardless of what they saw on Friday night.
It is difficult to imagine any of Adelaide’s other supposed long-term captaincy contenders — Ben Rutten and Scott Thompson among them — handling themselves quite as well.
Crows forward Brett Burton was unrivalled as the fittest player at West Lakes prior to van Berlo’s arrival in pre-season 2005, which saw the two going head-to-head at the vanguard of Adelaide’s running program.
Burton was handed the role of mentor, and said his protege bears more than a passing resemblance to premiership captain Mark Bickley in playing style and character.
“Nathan would have to be the easiest player to mentor that I’ve ever had,” Burton said.
“He picked things up very quickly, always had a very good idea of what he wanted to do. He trained very hard and paid a lot of attention to the details.
“He does have quite a bit of similarity to Bicks because he was very committed, always doing the right things and always giving 110 per cent.
“Similar too in that Bicks was never a star like an Andrew McLeod, but he was very courageous, always at the bottom of packs and lifting the team in that way.
“When you’ve got extreme fitness and you come to a footy club the first thing they think of is to make you a tagger because you can run around with blokes all day, and he took that job and did it well.”
Bickley was famed as a straight arrow in a Crows’ dressing room not always known for its discipline, and van Berlo too has a cerebral, squeaky-clean streak embellished by his tertiary studies of geophysics and science.
Not that he stands aloof from the group — quite the contrary according to Burton.
“He’s a really good guy around the place. Yeah he gets a few guys taking the piss but he gives as good as he gets,” he said.
“The younger guys all have a bit of the larrikin about them, whereas Bicks was always good for the odd one-liner here or there.”
However there remains one major obstacle to van Berlo’s succession.
No one seems entirely sure of where he should play.
So far, he has proven himself as a tagger and sometime small defender, and latterly has pursued a more creative brief through the middle, commonly running into the centre square off a wing.
Van Berlo would prefer to be directing traffic in the square and setting up attacks than using his superb fitness base to tag opponents out of the game.
“I keep asking to be put in attacking roles because I really enjoy that and feel like I’ve made some inroads in that,” he said this week.
“While I certainly don’t mind any role I play in the team, at the moment I’m really enjoying developing that side of my game, so hopefully I get a few more opportunities to play through the midfield in that way.”
Adelaide are trying to bring a new generation of youngsters into their midfield, many of them attack-minded and not always accountable.
David Mackay, Chris Knights and van Berlo’s housemate Bernie Vince have the potential to fill the shoes soon to be left by the likes of captain Simon Goodwin and Tyson Edwards, provided Adelaide’s coaching staff can get the mix right.
No.1 tagger Robert Shirley, meanwhile, has had an up-and-down 2008, playing fine matches on Chris Judd and Simon Black but also allowing several others to get away. Last week his notional opponent Jimmy Bartel touched the ball 41 times.
The very best of taggers are those also capable of hurting opponents on the way back, an art best epitomised by widely respected Sydney captain Brett Kirk, who just happens to be the same height and weight as van Berlo.
Burton endorsed van Berlo as a “super-tagger”.
“Nathan could be (up with Kirk), he’s got the defensive part of his game very solid and he can also attack. He’s a very good kick and he’s got speed as well,” Burton said.
“He’s certainly capable of captaining the side. He’s respected by everyone at the club and he does show all the traits required in his dealings with everyone.”
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