Football star reveals missed cricket chance

The winter football codes play their grand finals in Australia this weekend, heralding the unofficial start of summer as a nation's collective sporting psyche turns full-time to cricket.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted Australian Rules football's grand final today as one star of the code detailed how he nearly turned to cricket as a youth thanks to the influence of the late Frank Tyson.

Like most teenagers playing on the beaches or in the backyards around Australia, Queensland's Nick Riewoldt dreamed of wearing a Baggy Green for Australia.

Riewoldt, now 32, is one of Australian Rules' greats, having played 15 years and 298 games with the St Kilda Football Club, and has been named to the All-Australian team five times.

"In the late 1990s we engaged Frank as his one-on-one bowling coach," Riewoldt's father Joe told SEN's Morning Glory this week.

"Something that I haven't seen before or since is that he (Tyson) was explaining you shouldn't have to look where your feet are – that should all be natural. You should have your run-up absolutely perfect.

"To prove a point, every session he used to make my son bowl a couple of overs with a blindfold on."

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Riewoldt bowls at the Luke Batty Memorial T20 match // Getty

Tyson was rated by Richie Benaud as the fastest bowler he ever saw. His career with England spanned 1954-59 as he took 76 wickets in 17 Tests at the remarkable average of 18.56.

After his career, which was cut short by the low pay for the amateur players of the time and injury, Tyson emigrated to Melbourne as a school teacher.

He continued to play at club level, turning out as captain-coach for Melbourne University and also representing Footscray.

In 1975, Tyson became the first-ever full-time Victorian Coaching Director, a position he held for 12 years, guiding Victoria to back-to-back Sheffield Shield titles in the late 1970s.

Following his retirement, Tyson had moved up to the warmer climes of Queensland's Gold Coast. It was there he was tempted back into coaching by the natural talents of the teenage Riewoldt.

Riewoldt's prowess as a footballer is proven but how far he could have gone in cricket will remain unknown from an age before Cricket Australia's finely-developed talent identification systems, refined and relaunched for this summer as the Australian Cricket Pathway program.

The strategy aims to provide clarity around pathways for players, coaches and umpires from grass roots to the elite level, with a strong focus on talent identification and development.

Other initiatives already underway to help further define the pathway include CA and School Sport Australia partnering to host the 15 & Under championships, in Darwin earlier this year and Brisbane for the next two, with the number of teams increasing to 10 in 2016.

Riewoldt started on that journey but was lost to the sport when the football codes came calling.

Quick Single: Backyard to Baggy Green path paved

"He gave cricket up the year he got drafted," Joe said of his famous progeny.

"He made the state schoolboy side as an under-16. He wasn't terribly quick, but was just really accurate.

"He had really good line and length. Frank used to say to him, 'You will never be a really quick bowler because of your stature, you're too slim'."

While the Riewoldts engaged private coaches, a similar junior today would find themselves part of the Australian under-age teams, welcomed into the cricket family with the expertise and guidance of the national body available to them.

A team of the best cricketers from this year's Under-15 national championships is currently playing in the national Under-17 championships. Likewise, the very best from that tournament will play under the CA banner at the national Under-19 championships later this summer, where they will be coached by former Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris.