Every now and then you hear heart-warming stories of people overcoming obstacles to achieve their dreams, not just in sport, but in life.
The debut of Charlie Comben against Sydney on Saturday is one of those stories, with the young forward finally starting his AFL career over 600 days after being drafted.
After enduring a myriad of setbacks on and off the field, from missing 18 months of football due to injury, to his mother passing away, one constant has been Comben’s desire to prove himself at the top level.
After kicking a debut goal after the siren, he showed enough quality and potential to have North Melbourne fans salivating at the prospect of a key-forward partnership between Nick Larkey and Shinboner #1037.
Comben says making his debut was a reflective moment.
“I am quite emotional, I do think of mum not being here to be able to see me play,” he told North Media.
“I’ve put in a lot of work behind the scenes to get back, it’s been a really frustrating 18 months or so for me.
“To finally get out there and play with the boys, I could not be happier. It’s a massive reward for effort and I’m so stoked."
After stress fractures in his back ruled him out for the entirety of his debut year, Comben returned and impressed in the early parts of the 2021 pre-season.
However, the tall forward suffered another setback as stress fractures were then discovered in his tibia, ruling him out for much of this year.
He had surgery to fix the issue and made his return to competitive football via practice matches and the VFL, where he kicked goal after goal to launch himself into David Noble’s plans.
“I felt a long way off, and then to get the second setback with the tibial stress at the start of the year, it was really frustrating,” he said.
“We made the decision to go in for surgery to give me a chance to play at the end of the year. My personal goal was always to play AFL at the end of the year.
“I felt like I had the backing of the medical team too, and the sports science division. They’ve really helped me along the way.
“To get out and play VFL in the last four or five weeks, to work up and build good form and finally get out there, I’m so proud of myself, honestly.”
If making his AFL debut wasn’t already special enough, a magic moment occurred pre-game when Comben’s close friend, housemate and 100-gamer, Kayne Turner presented him with his first AFL jumper.
“I live with Kayne and we’ve formed a really good friendship over the last two years. I spent a lot of time with him in rehab last year and we’ve gotten really close … I was ecstatic,” Comben added.
“To debut when ‘Kayne-o’ played his hundredth too is unreal. It’s a testament to him.
"He’s massive for our team, and the amount of work he puts in behind the scenes is incredible, so it was really special, especially to get presented by ‘Kayne-o’ too.”
