{"id":11451,"date":"2014-04-01T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boundforglorynews.com\/?p=11451"},"modified":"2020-04-23T08:19:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T22:19:40","slug":"tate-marsh-the-next-dale-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2014\/04\/01\/tate-marsh-the-next-dale-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Tate Marsh: The next Dale Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rsz_1000652_10152293780003827_1150440318_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Kate from Gippsland Power<\/p>\n

In 2005, Gippsland Power listed a skinny, shaggy-haired midfielder by the name of Dale Thomas. Almost 10 years on, Power\u2019s talent manager Peter Francis is dumbfounded by the striking comparisons between the now AFL star, and a young lad from Traralgon, by the name of Tate Marsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy gee, they\u2019ve got one here, the Power. He\u2019s going to be a star, this kid,\u201d \u00a0TAC Cup Commentators Phil Crooks and Rick Morris spoke in disbelief of Marsh\u2019s run and carry through the midfield, setting up a memorable goal for the Power early in the game.<\/p>\n

At first glance, Tate Marsh looks like just another skinny and shy 17 year-old, but out on the football field, the ball just finds him, seemingly having it arrogantly on a string.\u00a0But arrogant, is something that Marsh is not. The shy, no-fuss midfielder with a cheeky grin understands that he\u2019s got some time to go before a shot at landing at an AFL club through the National Draft in 2015 comes around.<\/p>\n

At just 68 kilograms, there isn\u2019t much of him, which is why he leaves onlookers speechless with his ferociousness, aggression and his team-first instincts that make him appear to be playing 10 kilograms above his weight.\u00a0Marsh looks like a choirboy, but plays like a junkyard dog. He is unforgiving in his disposal, and displays maturity beyond his years for a player who is still only a boy.<\/p>\n

But playing under-18 football is something that remarkably isn\u2019t foreign to Marsh. In 2013, he impressed his senior coaches so much \u2013 running amok for Power\u2019s development side in the under 16\u2019s, that he earned himself a senior selection, and on debut he didn\u2019t let his older teammates down.\u00a0\u201cI was only a small kid then, and I still am,\u201d Marsh said of the experience.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t get too much game time, but it was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Marsh didn\u2019t know, was that he had left an impression on the coaching staff, cracking into packs, putting his body on the line and showing courage beyond his years.\u00a0After everything the Power threw at him during the try-outs for the 2014 squad, Marsh kept responding. And after a faultless preseason, a round 1 birth was justified, and again \u2013 he didn\u2019t let his coaches down.\u00a0But it didn\u2019t come without its pregame nerves.<\/p>\n

Marsh has a rare mix of speed and composure. He understands his disposal is his weapon, and has honed his craft to offer up an exciting blend of football that makes him hard to miss.\u00a0Where most kids would blaze away, Marsh has the maturity to always find a target and put the ball into dangerous areas for his leading forwards. His blonde whip of hair bounces in the wind, and a brief side step around an opponent before perfect delivery doesn\u2019t seem to surprise anyone from the Power camp, anymore.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that Marsh is humbled, yet slightly embarrassed by the hype that\u2019s surrounded him. However, he\u2019s starting to understand the position former Collingwood premiership player, now Gippsland coach Leigh Brown has set out for him.\u00a0When the game was on the line, Marsh burrowed into packs, threw himself at the ball, or laid a bone-crunching tackle that took down an opposition player who was 13 kilograms heavier. Marsh defies his size. He just gives you everything.<\/p>\n

Although Marsh was voted inside the top 5 of TAC Cup Radio\u2019s player of the day, with an impressive stat line of 26 disposals, five marks, 13 handball receives and a goal,\u00a0\u00a0Marsh said his nerves before the game were something he struggled to control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty nervous before hand, and I knew what to expect, but after the first five minutes when I came to the bench, I was spent and struggling to breathe a little bit, but I got through it, and the ball sort of kept finding me, which was good\u201d<\/p>\n

The 15-minute drive would\u2019ve felt like a lifetime for Marsh, who counts himself as one of the lucky ones, given he\u2019s just down the road from the Power\u2019s home ground, when some of his teammates come in from over an hour away.\u00a0When describing his strengths, Marsh outlines his running speed and transition work as key part of his game. \u201cProbably my running speed is my biggest strength, and finding space around the ground to use it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But in a day an age in which disposal is king, Marsh has an impressive skill set that allows him to do some pretty crafty things with the ball. He is balanced on both sides of his body, so much so that you wouldn\u2019t know which side is his preferred.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s sort of being something I\u2019ve been working on since I was younger, in the under 10\u2019s and under 12\u2019s. My previous coaches really wanted me to work on it, so it\u2019s something I\u2019ve really focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Marsh believes his weakness is his contested ball, the gutsy midfielder has found a way around that, believing that if he can\u2019t win it, the best he can do for his side is hold the opposition up, whether that be by laying a tackle, forcing stoppage, or pushing the ball forward to gain territory for his side that doesn\u2019t necessarily result in a statistic.<\/p>\n

But when asked what his personal goals were for the year, Marsh said it was all about maintaining his spot in the side, whether that was by improvement in areas, or just constantly showing a team-first attitude that\u2019s required when playing for the Power.\u00a0\u201cI just want to play good footy, and keep my spot in the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some kids were just born to play football, and for Gippsland Power\u2019s Tate Marsh, the words could not ring truer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: Kate from Gippsland Power In 2005, Gippsland Power listed a skinny, shaggy-haired midfielder by the name of Dale Thomas. Almost 10 years on, Power\u2019s talent manager Peter Francis is dumbfounded by the striking comparisons between the now AFL star, and a young lad from Traralgon, by the name of Tate Marsh. \u201cBy gee, they\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,11591],"tags":[612,794,11624,1584,51,1776,11694,11695],"class_list":["post-11451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-gippsland-power","tag-dale-thomas","tag-gippsland","tag-nab-league-boys-features","tag-rising-stars-2","tag-tac-cup","tag-tate-marsh","tag-tate-marsh-feature","tag-tate-marsh-gippsland-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}