Tom Mitchell was on vacation, but he wasn’t relaxing.
Last October, as he kept refreshing his phone to see the latest trade updates, the midfielder began to worry that his move to Collingwood might not happen.
However, as he sat in the 29-degree Miami sun, a photoshopped image of him in black and white stripes appeared.
“I remember the day; it was actually a night, and I was in Miami in America with a couple of good friends and we were watching the last moments of the trade period and my trade went down to the wire,” he told reporters.
“I believe I was the last trade of the trade period, with about one minute left, and it almost didn’t get done.”
“I remember being with my friends, and when the trade went through, we all just jumped on each other.”
“I was obviously on the other side of the world, but my phone blew up and I was just pumped to start a new journey and start a new chapter and 12 months later it was the best thing I ever did.”
When Mitchell returned to Australia, he was struck by how many players were already back on the track.
“I remember coming in throughout the off-season there was so many guys already in training and stuff like that,” he told me.
“I remember meeting Bruzzy for the first time, as well as Nick Daicos and I believe Quaynor, so I became acquainted with a few faces early on.”
“We just started talking and decided it’d be a good idea to start training together.”
“Those weekly sessions pretty much started right away when I got back to Australia, and more and more guys joined in.”
“A couple of sessions there we pretty much had the whole squad training together in the off-season which just doesn’t happen so it was pretty awesome to see everyone’s commitment.”
Leave a Reply