He’s a self-confessed ‘weirdo’ who eats grass, and Matt Rowell is now a Brownlow winner

“[They’re] very loving and supportive, and that is why I’m standing up here today.”

Rowell said his parents introduced him to footy as a four-year-old and he would drag either Mum or Dad outside for kick to kick every chance he could.

“Early on I was kicking the footy at the front with Dad, and if he was not there, I would drag Mum out there - she’s not bad, she’s a left-footer, so shoutout to Mum,” Rowell said.

“I remember going to Auskick when I was four at the local primary school, and straight away just loving the game, and loving being outdoors, loving running around and being with my mates.”

But it isn’t without its perils, as he found when he ate grass from a ground in Darwin before a local told him it had been treated with sewage water.

“Actually, I was playing in Darwin in a game a few years ago, and they said, ‘We saw you eat the grass before the game, but, it goes through the sewerage, the grass or something’,” Rowell said with a laugh.

“So you might want to get yourself checked that nothing is wrong with you – that was a bit of a strange one.”

“I learnt lessons that you have got to have a balance as well. I was a footy nut growing up and probably was a bit of a weirdo too. I carried footys around everywhere. I think it showed me a bit of balance, too. Footy is not everything as well.

“There is stuff to love as well apart from footy and I created a lot of good relationships through that time with a lot of people at the footy club.

“So although it was devastating at the time to get injured, I think it was really good for me, actually, as a person and, yeah, so - I have been lucky enough to stay injury free since those first few, but I think it taught many a lot of lessons.”

“I think I might have pinched a few votes off him that he should have got. Just to go through the whole journey which with him and go to Carey Grammar and to be drafted together was cool. It made it a lot easier I guess to transition into the AFL.

“There are good photos there, looking very young. But, yeah, I love playing with him but I love him as a mate as well.

“That friendship means a lot to me, and it is not very often that you get to go to an AFL team with your best mate.

“We have been on that journey together, like winning the premiership in Year 12. We would love to do that at an AFL level. I think where have taken big strides in that this year.

“I love playing with him and I love him as a bloke.”