Although he played out season 2018 in the Brunswick Bats ressies, Matthew “Don’t Like” Mundie, still believes he did enough in the early part of the year to attract attention from AFL clubs, saying they would be “negligent” to overlook him in favour of an elite 18 year-old.

“Kick the ball up to me one out with any of them… (It would be) embarrassing. I’m worth a third rounder (selection) at worst.”

Having started out as a talentless tagger, the mature age apprentice said he might've been picked up earlier, had he not “discovered the piss, darts, and two piece feeds” on schoolies. And by 2013, the mature age apprentice thought his professional football dream had passed him by - that was until a pre-season move forward that he says put him “back under the recruiters noses”.

The Bat’s coach, Shane “Shagger” Roberts, explained how the positional change came about.

“He showed up in February fat as mud, even for him... he nearly had a heart attack in an intraclub, so he rolled forward and kicked two on this under eighteen kid that was 40 kilos ringing wet. He tried to make us call him Plugger after that.”

Mundie remembers the “inspired move” a little differently, adding “either way, the stats don’t lie”.

The burly full forward ended the 2018 season with 14 goals and 9 behinds from his seventeen senior games, including a "bag" of 3 versus the Fitzroy Frogs that he believes got AFL clubs talking.

“Stiffy (ruckman Jon Cocker)’s brother is a recruiter at St Kilda and was there that day. He hasn’t said anything, but I heard James Podsiadly didn’t know Geelong were going to take him in 2009 either.”

Mundie said he will listen to the AFL draft at home.

From all at SportChamps, Good luck “Don’t Like”.