Another Hampton Rovers junior has joined the AFL ranks with NBL player Corey Maynard signing a one-year contract with Melbourne Football Club on Wednesday as a Category B rookie.
24-year-old Corey is the older brother of Brayden Maynard who is in his second season at Collingwood and has played 27 games for the club.
Corey first played for the Hampton Rovers in the year 2000 in the Under 9s and played 84 junior games for the club through until 2006 in the Under 15s. His dad, former Melbourne, Glenelg and Woodville/West Torrens player Peter Maynard, coached his junior team for several seasons. Corey’s last game of football was seven years ago in Year 10 at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide, kicking 14 goals.
He also played Basketball and that became his priority, moving to the USA where he spent four seasons playing division one college basketball with Bryant University. The last two seasons have been spent in the NBL with the Cairns Taipans and Townsville Crocodiles. The 191cm Maynard also represented Australia as part of the emerging Boomers squad.
Corey has been recruited via the three-year-non-registered rule which allows a player straight onto a list if he has not been registered in an Australian Football competition for three years.
Maynard told melbournefc.com.au he was really excited to follow in his father’s and his brother’s footsteps.
“I’m really excited,” Maynard said.
“I obviously played footy while I was growing up and it was my number one sport for a long time so I’m really excited to get stuck into it.
“(Dad) likes to tell us he was pretty skilful and we’ve watched some old tapes of him. He forces us to sit down and watch them with him when they won two flags back in the ’80s. He was a really good footballer back in his time.
“(Brayden’s) played nearly 30 games now and he’s only 19 so he’s got off to a really good start in his career. I’m a long way off that. It will take a lot of time and I’m realistic about that but I’m really excited about the opportunity.
Maynard said he had no regrets about ending his basketball career to pursue AFL football.
“It was a really positive journey I had in basketball,” Maynard said.
“But it was kind of getting to that point where I was getting to the age where if I really wanted to give footy a crack I probably had to think about making a switch. I’m really happy with the decision.”
The Demons had been tracking Maynard for three years and their national talent manager Jason Taylor said his competitiveness is his most exciting attribute.
Read the article & watch the interview with Corey Maynard on the Melbourne FC website >
It’s believed up to four other clubs were interested in the services of Corey – Adelaide Crows, Essendon, St Kilda and Collingwood.
With AFL approval, Maynard has secretly trained with Melbourne’s VFL team and completed some rigorous physical testing with fitness coach Daniel Cross.
Hampton Rovers now boast five players at the Melbourne Football Club (Chris Dawes, Angus Brayshaw, Christian Salem, Jayden Hunt and now Corey Maynard) while Karl Amon (Port Adelaide) and Brayden Maynard (Collingwood) played also played all their junior footy at the club and Ted Richards (Sydney) and Ty Vickery (Richmond) had small stints at the Rovers, totalling a staggering nine current AFL players.
