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Andrew Phillips isn\u2019t the type of guy you\u2019d describe as scary.<\/p>\n
Carrying an easy smile, his eyes light up at the mention of his two toddlers, Ned and Toby and his wife Teagan, who he married at a winery in their home state of Tasmania in 2019.<\/p>\n
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Andrew Phillips: He never stopped wanting to be the No.1 ruckman at a club.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Chris Hopkins<\/cite><\/p>\n A qualified carpenter, he\u2019s remodelled two vintage caravans, the first called Fergie now sold, and the second Myrtle, and renovated their house, mostly in his beloved German Shorthaired Pointer\u2019s company.<\/p>\n And at three clubs over the past 12 seasons he somehow inhabited the back-up ruckman\u2019s brutal world on the knife edge of selection without losing his mind.<\/p>\n Phillips jokes that he worked out he\u2019d played 80-odd games in the AFL, 80-odd state league games and has about four years unaccounted for. Most can be explained through injury (a hamstring and navicular stress fracture the worst), non-selection or time as a carry-over emergency.<\/p>\n Despite his laid-back demeanour, Phillips didn\u2019t just accept his lot.<\/p>\n He always pushed for senior selection and to dislodge the number one ruckman as he rode an emotional yo-yo when he was told week to week whether he was in or out of the team, a spot generally arising when the first ruckman was injured or the coach decided, for whatever reason, to play two rucks.<\/p>\n Andrew Phillips has retired after spending his adult life on an AFL list.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AFL Photos \/ Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI guess it\u2019s sort of just been the way my whole career has been,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cYou spend a lot of time waiting for those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n At Carlton, where he landed after five years at the Giants, he began to look for reasons why selection wasn\u2019t falling his way as often as he hoped.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I\u2019m taking this really well. I\u2019m always positive in thinking, \u2018Okay, that\u2019s all right, selection didn\u2019t go my way. I\u2019ll go back and chip away in the twos\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThen after a while I started thinking: \u2018Am I just an easy drop here because I take it so well?\u2019 Part of me [thought] \u2018Am I too nice? Am I taking this too well?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He thrashed out the issue with senior coaches at Carlton [Brendon Bolton] and Essendon [Ben Rutten], respecting their viewpoint and eventually accepting that selection was, in many ways, out of his control. All he could control was his attitude and subsequent performance.<\/p>\n Andrew Phillips rucked at Carlton too<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax Media<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI kept searching for answers and I kept trying to find, I don\u2019t know … I kept sitting down with [Rutten] and I don\u2019t know what answers I was trying to get out of him or what I wanted to hear,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s the hard truth. Selection is out of your control.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips experience is the experience of many players on AFL lists, particularly among the rucking fraternity, a subset that can exist on lists for years in and out of the seniors, always battling for a spot on the weekends or against their frenemies at training.<\/p>\n The rivalry among rucking teammates generally remained unspoken, but he admits there were sessions where both knew the selection decision was 50\/50. He laughs as he recalls the day at Carlton when Bolton sent Phillips and Matthew Lobbe back to the change rooms to collect their shin guards before they trained each other for a spot.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally you want to train well, but normally you start looking to get through training as well. But this was \u2018come on boys\u2019,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Who was picked that day remains less memorable, but their friendship survived.<\/p>\n He would also watch \u2018the ruck merry-go-round\u2019 arrive towards the end of each season as ruckman would rotate clubs, gallows humour sometimes needed when the media ran stories linking a gun ruckman to his club.<\/p>\n \u201c[I could] be like \u2018I\u2019m already struggling here, and we\u2019re looking at him! Where am I at?\u2019 But you might see one [ruckman] move from somewhere else and that might open up an opportunity there,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n He never stopped wanting to be the No.1 ruckman and his habit became to check hit out statistics before midfielders\u2019 disposals or who kicked goals if he found himself poring over a stats sheet.<\/p>\n \u201cI was always pushing for that spot,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n As the years went on he began to live on one-year deals for the last four to five seasons of his career, often being one of the last players signed, early spring sometimes discussing with Teagan whether this was the summer they would move back to Tasmania.<\/p>\n Early on this year, with Toby arriving in March, they decided that at the end of 2023 they would return to Tasmania to be closer to family. As they pondered the decision Phillips joked, \u2018what if I have an absolute blinder of a year? What if I win the B&F?\u2019.<\/p>\n Although he is unlikely to win the best and fairest, he has played a career-high 20 games (Friday night will be his 20th) and would have been offered another contract next season. He not only has internal respect but, externally, his year has elevated his reputation. But mentally he\u2019s ready to get back to live in Hobart, having grown up in the unpretentious yet beautiful town, Swansea, on the East Coast.<\/p>\n Phillips is proud of what he achieved since the Giants picked him as a rookie as he was near completing the third year of his carpentry apprenticeship. As he puts it, he was bashing a hammer in Tasmania on the Tuesday and running laps of Bicentennial Park in Sydney on Thursday.<\/p>\n And, despite the ups and downs he experienced, he\u2019s enjoyed every minute of his time as an AFL player.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve built really good relationships, and I\u2019ve left on good terms with everyone and I still speak to and bump into people from across all three clubs and am excited to see them,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not hard to believe that would be the case given the bonds he grew during what he describes as \u201cthe shenanigans\u201d that occurred when Giants teammates lived among each other at Breakfast Point. One day, Phillips threw a mattress on the roof of his car on a whim and drove up Orchards Avenue from one apartment he was sharing with teammates to another.<\/p>\n Alex Carey (third from left) and Andrew Phillips (fourth from left) in an earlier time with the Giants. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Kevin Sheedy<\/cite><\/p>\n It\u2019s one of thousands of such memories that sees him so positive.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing around footy club environments is so much fun … you\u2019re getting paid pretty well to work out and keep fit and staying in a ripping environment with some great people,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sign of where he is at that he says running out against North Melbourne with his two boys was his biggest thrill with Ned accompanying him to training on Friday, one last time at the Bombers.<\/p>\n Phillips deserves to enjoy one last game, his 82nd, in front of a full house at the MCG on a Friday night with a text from Lauderdale coach Allen Christensen waiting in his phone.<\/p>\n The tools and a bit of footy in Tasmania probably await, but he is open to all possibilities.<\/p>\n Asked what advice he\u2019d give to any rucks in his position right now, he keeps it real: \u201cYour time to shine is going to come eventually. And whether it comes in your 13th year, you\u2019re going to get your moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Rucking stayers<\/strong><\/h3>\n