• WARWICK GREEN
  • HERALD SUN
  • JULY 05, 2014 8:00PM




Marcus Bontempelli seems to have more time than his opponents on the field. Picture: Michael Klein.


THE similarities with Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury are striking and have been made regularly: both 192cm left-footed midfielders who were top-five draft picks.
Young Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli may have only played eight AFL games, but his ability to keep his composure and step through congestion and, as teammate Bob Murphy observed this week, make the play look like it is unfolding in slow motion, is another quality he shares with Pendlebury.It has some pondering whether their shared style has something to do with their elite basketball background.Pendlebury famously was selected in a 12-man AIS basketball squad, but decided to withdraw to play football, paving the way for a late call-up for another kid called Patty Mills. “(Scott) definitely could have played a high level of basketball,” Mills, who played in this year’s NBA championship team with San Antonio, said recently.Bontempelli was not quite at that basketball level, he did play in a team that won the national schoolboys championships, and like Pendlebury played at the highest club representative level with the Eltham Wildcats.
Marcus Bontempelli is exciting Dogs fans. Picture: Wayne Ludbey


His closest brush with the NBA came when, as a bottom-age U16s player, he was matched against Keilor’s gun junior, Dante Exum, who was last week drafted at pick 5 by the Utah Jazz.“From memory he kept him under 20, and not many were able to do that at the time,’’ his Eltham under16s coach, Ben Ward recalled.Bontempelli played as a small forward on the basketball court, where he honed some of the qualities now evident on the football oval.“He had great instincts and read the play particularly well,’’ Ward said. “He was always someone I could trust defensively because he just innately seemed to know what to do.“He wasn’t nearly as tall, he sprouted quite late. He was one of those kids who — and you can see they’re going to be tall — went through a bit of an awkward stage where their feet get big but the rest of their frame hasn’t caught up.’’Although Bontempelli was not as flashy with a Molten as he is with a Sherrin, his basketball coach described him as “a ripping kid’’.“I mean he was the youngest kid in the age group,’’ Ward said, “and we’d only got maybe two or three weeks into pre-season and it was clear that he was the captain, he was just the standout choice.’’Bontempelli’s remarkable matchwinning goal against Melbourne, in which he stripped the ball from James Frawley before ducking and around opponents like a point looking for an opening in the key, looked distinctly basketball.But Ward suggested the play “said a lot to me about his tenacity; he’s just a real competitor. He had no real right to be in that contest but he just kept going and just kept going and he’s ended up kicking the goal.’’
Scott Pendlebury was an elite junior basketballer. Picture: Michael Klein


With more and more former junior basketballers entering the AFL system — Pendlebury, Bontempelli and Essendon’s David Zaharakis are just three of seven who played at a decent level for Eltham’s juniors — there is every chance we will see more round-ball influence on Australian football.Bontempelli’s cousin, Nick Dal Santo, is another who has always seemed adept at finding time and space. He grew up in Bendigo with basketball as his primary sporting passion, and represented Victoria before switching his focus to football in the 18 months before he was drafted by St Kilda.Consider some of these other AFL players who loved their basketball as juniors: Hawthorn’s Jarryd Roughead, Sydney’s Kurt Tippett, Melbourne’s Jack Watts, Fremantle’s Danyle Pearce, Port Adelaide’s Robbie Gray and North Melbourne’s Todd Goldstein.
Hawthorn’s Jarryd Roughead was a standout basketballer in his youth. Picture: Wayne Ludbey


Ward believes it is not just the individual players who are making an impact on the AFL.“I find it funny how much of the basketball terminology is making the transition across to footy: zoning, set plays, tempo, that kind of stuff,’’ he said. “And just having a systematic way that you’re going to go about attacking when you have possession of the ball.“I’m 31, and when I played footy it was ‘just win the football and get it long to the tall kid’.’’If Bontempelli can continue to develop like Pendlebury, the Bulldogs’ game plan might include a healthy dose of “just win the football and get it into the hands of the tall midfielder’’.