Bulldogs vice-captain Jordan Roughead writes a fortnightly column for the Ballarat Courier. The following excerpt is from a piece published on 13 June 2015. For the full column, visit the Courier website.

The players’ lounge at the Kennel erupted early on Wednesday afternoon. 

Looking forward to a well-deserved bye weekend, our playing group congregated around the TV. 

With two-and-a-half minutes left to play in game three of the NBA play-offs, Matthew Dellavedova sunk what many are describing as a “circus shot”. 

We already had a number of basketball fanatics before the play-offs, but after Delly’s heroics in game three, we now have a whole lot more.

The Bulldogs alone could put a decent team on the court.

Matthew Boyd tells me he ran the point guard position expertly when he was younger, and Marcus Bontempelli slotted in at shooting guard before he decided to pursue a career in football. 

Starting at small forward would be Kobe Stevens, a Victoria Country representative from East Gippsland, and filling the power forward and centre positions would be Ayce Cordy and myself after playing state basketball together in the mid-2000s.

Our depth might be an issue, but Bob Murphy would probably come on as sixth man – he was a skinny but effective shooting guard for Warragul in the mid-1990s.

If Sam Darley lacked skill, he would make up for it with enthusiasm and hustle and Lukas Webb still shoots the ball very well. As with most sports, the longer it is since I have played, the better I tell people I was.

I remember playing against the likes of Taylor Walker, Jack Watts and Anthony Morabito and watching Ballarat’s Mitch and Nathan Brown. 

At some point, we all made the same decision. 

For me, it was a decision made late in 2007. 

I had played a season of TAC Cup footy with the Rebels and before the 2008 pre-season sat down with then-Rebels coach Chris Maple and regional manager Phil Partington. 

They dangled a carrot in front of me that any teen would have trouble saying no to, telling me that if I committed my energies to football I was a chance to get drafted and play in the AFL.

Matthew Dellavedova chose the other alternative.