It took Leigh Montagna four years to cement a spot in St Kilda’s best 22. He’d come in for a game or a handful of games at a time before being sent back to the reserves.
But during that tough initiation to league football, under the guidance of hard task master Grant Thomas, the champion midfielder developed a level of resilience that set him on a path to success.
After 16 years and 287 games, the man affectionately known as ‘Joey’ after legendary San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana, hung up his boots on Tuesday afternoon, joining his great mate Nick Riewoldt in retirement.
“You’ve got to learn resilience to play this sport. I spoke to the playing group yesterday and I said, ‘you’ve just got to have resilience’,” Montagna told Melbourne radio station RSN on Wednesday.
“I had it tough early in my career, my first four years weren’t easy, I played a lot of reserves football but I think that taught my resilience because in AFL you get a lot more kicks in the guts than you do highs and you need to be able to ride the bumps and just go with it.
“I think that’s one of the proudest things I can look back on is my resilience to keep hanging in there and eventually it turned and I had such an incredible run with those teams.”
The dual All-Australian wingman admits the
“It’s always going to eat at you, but we’re also very content knowing that group just gave our all,” Montagna said.
“We couldn’t have done much more in the way we prepared and the way we played, it just came down to a bit of execution in that ’09 Grand Final against Geelong and the 2010 Grand Final came down to a bit of luck with the bounce of the footy.
“So obviously that’s always going to burn, but we’re very content with the effort and that’s all you can ask for that you give your all.
“We’ve got a bond with that playing group that will last a lifetime, while we don’t have the medal, we have the friendship and the bond that will last 20 or 30 years.”
