Sav: Where to from here? - Jul 29, 2000

By Damian Barrett

Saverio Rocca breaks his 'no comment'' policy to reveal exclusively what it felt like to be told his Collingwood career was over, what the future holds, and the hurt associated with constant supporter abuse.

IT IS easy to bag Saverio Rocca. It can be done without fear of reprisal. Everyone is doing it.

The most vocal are supporters of his club. The most quiet are officials of his club. Somewhere in the middle is the media and virtually everyone else with an opinion on Australian football. Has there been a more maligned player in 100 years of the game? Possibly. Possibly not.

Two and a half weeks ago, on the Wednesday before Collingwood played Sydney in Round 19, Rocca was told by Magpies coach Mick Malthouse he had played his last game for Collingwood.

Thanks for the 156 matches, thanks for the 514 goals, thanks for the highlights. But you are not part of the future. Off you go.

The meeting was civil. There were no raised voices; merely a chat about where the player stood in the eyes of the coach.

Rocca left with a lump in his throat, knowing he would never again wear the Magpies guernsey.

As he drove home, despite the temptation, he found he could not bring himself to hate Malthouse. He knew he had to deal with the situation and so began the draining process of telling those closest to him.

Though he barely slept in the ensuing nights as he contemplated the destruction of his dream to play out his career with the Magpies, alongside brother Anthony, Rocca gradually came to ''feel free''.

Rocca, a man who has rarely allowed media intrusion in nine years of senior football, openly addressed every issue put to him in an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun. But there was one out-of-bounds topic: his words with Malthouse. He chose not to elaborate out of respect for a man he describes as a ''very smart person'', one he manfully concedes was acting in the best and long-term interests of the club.

''It was something between us two and I respect Mick for what he is trying to do at the club,'' Rocca said.

''It was a one-on-one. He gave me the facts straight and didn't go round the bend. He just told me how it was.''

Rocca is 26. He is washed up as far as Collingwood goes, but is he washed up from an AFL point of view? In coming weeks, rival clubs will toss his name around at recruiting meetings. He is convinced he has three to five solid seasons left in his ample frame but knows, as does his managers -- Rob Conte (financial) and Craig Kelly (promotional) -- there are no guarantees.

It should not end like this for a player who burst on the scene amid claims he was the ''next Lockett'', and talented enough to do, as only 36 others have done in the history of the game, kick 500 goals. People forget that statistic.<br><br> For Rocca, the goals came at a healthy 3.29 per match, despite the past two seasons being poor ones. Collingwood believes Rocca is past his physical peak; that his body, particularly his knees, are shot; that he is too one-dimensional. It feels he is no longer any benefit to a team attempting to move off the bottom rungs of the ladder.

Compounding the player's problems this year has been an eye injury and calf problems.

The game that Rocca did not take to until late in his teenage years and the one he all but conquered in 1995 with 93 goals -- may have beaten him. Though he has overcome the shock of the news emanating from the meeting with Malthouse, Rocca still hurts.

"I just didn't see it coming, it was unexpected," he said.

"My intent was to play the rest of my days at Collingwood. When that came about, it meant I had to weed out my thoughts, and deal with a lot of stuff"

"There was a lot on my mind. Am I going to get picked up by another club? There are a million things that run through your head . . . it was hard"

"Initially I lost sleep over it, I was pretty devastated. I've got Anthony there, I wanted to finish my career at the club"

"But it is all a business now and the club has to look at it from the point of view that if they can get value out of letting me go and getting something better for it, they have got to do it, and that is the way they are looking at it"

"THEY are looking at the future and they are aggressive in doing that"

"Even though you might disappoint one or two players, the club is still going to be there in 20 or 30 years time whereas those players they have let go are not going to be there."

"All they are concerned about is the club and the club's future"

It hurts most for Rocca when he hears teammates discussing plans for next season.

"I just wish I was still there and still playing good football and still being a part of the club that I love," he said"

You hear things in the club rooms, people talking about what will be happening next year, and things they or the club will be doing in the future.

"I know I am not going to be part of that, and I feel left out. I am not going to be there, and I find that hard to accept. Something you have believed in for nine years, and I have believed in everything about Collingwood, is very hard to let go"

Rocca's football future might be in Australia. But there is a chance -- albeit a minute one -- it might be in the United States following his recent hopes of making it on to the list of an American gridiron team.

Rocca's dreams of following Darren Bennett into the big-time National Football League punting ranks will depend on a few arranged try-outs with NFL clubs during a holiday in the US next month with his wife, Rosie.

The likelihood is Rocca will be named in the national or pre-season AFL player drafts.

"I know that I am still capable of playing football and I know I have a minimum three good years left in me, perhaps five," he said.

"It has been frustrating these last couple of years because injuries have not allowed me to show what I can do. I suppose in some aspects, other clubs might look poorly on me for coming down with injuries in the past couple of years, but I know that if they give me half a chance, if they keep looking at me, I will shape up and play good footy"

If all else fails, Rocca will devote his time to a restaurant he runs with brother Anthony and Essendon player Steve Alessio, and possibly dabble in massage, a skill in which he became qualified in the early 1990s.

WHATEVER the outcome, friends say Rocca will be "just fine". One of his closest mates, Gavin Brown, said while Rocca was disappointed to be finishing at Collingwood, he had stayed positive.

"He's got options, it's not as if he has got nowhere to go; he knows there is something at the end of the rainbow," Brown said.

"I've had a chat to him, as mates do, to see what his feelings are, and he is obviously disappointed, there is no doubt about that. But the good thing is that he is positive, whatever the outcome. That is important, because I would hate to see him despondent. It's terrific, because it's been a bit of a kick in the backside for him"

The words of Brown, Rosie, Anthony, Conte, Kelly and others have helped Rocca through the pain of the past two and a half weeks.

Gradually, his mindset has changed from one of devastation to being positive. He feels free of the massive weight that came with being a maligned Collingwood footballer"

"It is a matter of one door closing and another door opening; I just think it is a good opportunity for me," he said.

"At the moment I am in control of my life and still looking forward. I am really looking forward to playing elsewhere, to proving that I can still play good football"

Though exciting at the time of his AFL debut in 1992, Rocca's entry to football was not typical.

Most of his school sporting life was consumed by a promising pursuit of discus-throwing -- he was the under-19 national champion -- but when he started to play under-17s for Reservoir-Lakeside in the Diamond Valley League, he became a football convert. And potential superstar.

But, because of his late start, Rocca lacked something -- he did not possess the intangible, instinctive skills evident in all the great players.

"When you haven't played footy until you are 17 or 18, which he was, you don't get the natural instincts, such as body on body, and how to find the body and use it," Kelly said.

"He had to grow into that."

Rocca's lack of football smarts was obvious to Brown.

Also obvious was that extra teaching could have solved the problem.

"I would have loved to have seen someone get hold of Sav, whether it be a coach at the club or someone to take special interest in him, like Dermie (Dermott Brereton) did with Nick Holland (at Hawthorn), someone to have a big interest in him and help him," Brown said.

"Left to his own devices, I don't think he knows all the ropes because he was a late starter. He has got that much ability, and if he had a personal trainer, I think they would get a hell of a lot more out of him.

"That is just from my point of view. I reckon that could have been done, but unfortunately it wasn't. Some players don't need that but I reckon he would have benefited from it"

BROWN'S sentiments are given weight when season 1995 is recalled. That year was Rocca's best and the club's ability to entice Brereton into one more year had a lot to do with it.

Though the side missed the final eight by four points, the Rocca-Brereton set-up worked well. Rocca booted 93 goals, benefiting from the blocking, but more significantly the nous, provided by the five-time Premiership player.

That Rocca can tower 195cm, weigh 106kg and have muscles sprouting from every inch of skin is another of the problems perceived by his knockers; the problem being that in their eyes he does not use that physique in the best way.

Simply, Rocca does not seek to hurt people, even within rules on the field. He is no way timid or afraid of others. But, as Brereton observed in 1995 he does not instil fear in opponents.

Abuse, often centred on his perceived lack of vigor, by fans became hurtful over time. Rocca was well aware of its spiteful nature. He will not miss this aspect of Collingwood.

"It does hurt because supporters do not know the full story," he said.

"Some (supporters) are great, some have been fantastic -- I have received heaps of encouragement from some of them -- but others just don't know. All they want me to do is kick goals, and that is all they are interested in. But it goes a lot deeper than getting the ball and kicking goals"

"A lot of the times you hear what they say. One that really bugs me is how they want me to belt up some bloke on the field"

"I HAVE never shirked the issue. I don't go out of my way to miss somebody, or not hurt somebody, or hit somebody. If they are in the road, and I have got to get the ball, and they are there, I won't stop and go around them. I will crash through. I don't go looking for it -- I am not a player who will give someone a whack from behind the play. I don't dislike hurting people but I don't go out there looking for it"

Another of Rocca's beefs with his portrayal as a football is directed at the media.

"The media don't realise I am an introverted person," he said.

"I am a private person, I just like to go about things in my own way, and that's why I get away at the end of each year and I'm not seen much. I am not into all the hype and talk about fame. I just keep to myself"

The coming together of Saverio and Anthony at Collingwood in 1997 was meant to be a defining moment in the club's pursuit of a Premiership to complement its 1990 success.

The brothers were said to be distraught at the separation brought on by Anthony's two seasons of playing for the Swans.

Sav said the differences between he and his brother have been manufactured; that the abuse of Collingwood fans directed at Sav had influenced Anthony to try to be different.

"We are individuals but at the same time we are very similar; he is aware of what people have been saying to me, and about me," Sav said.

"He wants to be seen as a harder player, so he has gone out there and made sure he is seen to be tough"

With each passing day, Rocca convinces himself his exit from Collingwood is for all the right reasons.

The freedom from the spiteful supporters is refreshing. But, there is one facet that will tug at the heartstrings.

"Anthony and I thought we would be playing together for the rest of our days, that is not going to happen now," he said.

"But, my life still goes on, and his life still goes on. Everything still goes on"

THIS ARTCLE WAS THE MOST RECENT, MORE WILL BE ADDED