Campbell Chesser

Young Achiever: Chesser living his dream

IT’S often said you only get one chance to make a first impression. And Campbell Chesser certainly had tongues wagging on AFL draft night last November when he donned the West Coast jumper for the first time. Inadvertently, the Eagles’ first round pick was handed a jumper so big that it drew some amusing responses on social media. “Campbell Chesser absolutely swimming in his @WestCoastEagles guernsey. He’ll be able to use it as a tent until he finds a place #AFLdraft” was just one of the funnier posts on Twitter.

Chesser also found some of the social media posts quite amusing. “To be honest, I found it pretty funny at the time,” Chesser said. “There was a fair bit going on with the media that night but some of the comments I read were fairly clever. “It was just a bit of light-hearted fun and nothing too serious.” It didn’t take long though for Chesser to prove how serious he was about his AFL career though.

The former Lavington junior spent Christmas and New Year in quarantine in Perth so he could start training with the Eagles on day one of pre-season in early January. Chesser said it was a small price to pay to live his AFL dream. “A lot of friends have commented to me how big a sacrifice they thought it was to go into quarantine,” he said. “But I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing anything. “I just love football and the environment and want to make the most of the chance that I have been given by West Coast.”I basically moved out of home after Year 9 to attend Melbourne Grammar to pursue my football dream and an education. “So two weeks in quarantine wasn’t an issue because I’m getting to do what I am most passionate about.”

A talented junior, Chesser was the Vic Country captain and All-Australian at under-16 level, as well as a national level sprinter. But the combination of a knee injury and COVID has restricted the 18-year-old to a handful of matches over the past two seasons. Some good judges predicted that Chesser’s lack of recent football would see him slide down the pecking order in the AFL draft. But the Eagles chose to overlook some highly rated West Australian talent to draft Chesser with pick 14. Chesser said while not being able to play much football for the past two years had been frustrating, it’s irrelevant now. “I think once you get drafted, everything resets and you start with a clean slate,” he said. “I’m certainly not too worried about the past, it’s just a matter of working as hard as I can now.”

Source – The Border Mail, 19.02.2022