Dale Thomas says it took him three years and $400,000 worth of counselling to mentally recover from the embarrassment of a disastrous set shot while playing for Carlton against his former team, Collingwood.
Three years after becoming a Magpies premiership player in 2010, Thomas was lured to the Blues on a lucrative contract that made him one of the AFL’s highest-paid players.
After joining Carlton as a free agent, Thomas never quite reached the same heights that he did during his peak for Collingwood.
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That, he has now admitted, was in part due to a simple shot at goal against his old club that went horribly wrong in just his seventh game for the Blues.
“I had a shot (for goal) against Collingwood when I first played for Carlton, 35 metres out, was never more confident going back and kicking a ball, and didn’t make the distance, just somehow fluffed it,” Thomas said on Triple M.
“I reckon it took me three years and about $400,000 worth of AFLPA counselling to get confidence back in having a set shot for goal.
“I was a player who never had an issue — (I) missed goals, no worries.
“(But) that played on my mind, I lost sleep over it. The first time I’ve ever been properly rattled by anything.
“If there was a hole and a shovel, I would have continued to keep digging. I wanted to go off the field, it was gross.”
The man affectionately known as ‘Daisy’ said it didn’t ever threaten to cut short his AFL career, but it certainly affected the way he played.
“Nah, not in that sense,” he said when asked if his desire to play the game waned after the incident.
“But (it was) the first moment I guess I’d ever failed the ultimate test.
“I had a lot of moments throughout my career, and you don’t always take them, but you’ve prepared yourself in a way that you can. And, in that moment, I genuinely gassed it and I was embarrassed.
“It haunted me for a long time.
“You can’t escape it. It ended up being right in my head.”
Thomas, now 37 and a rising star of AFL media as an expert commentator with Channel 7 and Triple M, poured cold water over the suggestion that the poor kick was because of his troublesome ankle.
Thomas missed large chunks of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons as he battled with his body to stay fit.
The dynamic high-flyer famously re-negotiated his contract in 2017 to accept less money than he was due, given his form was not to the same standard it had been in the past.
But after an underwhelming first four years as a Carlton player, Thomas enjoyed a renaissance in the twilight of his career when he moved to half-back and flourished.
He retired at the end of 2019, having been the only player in the history of the game to play 100 games for both Carlton and Collingwood.