best moment of the champs came during the dying stages of his side\u2019s clash with WA<\/a> at Marvel Stadium.<\/p>\nWith the Allies down by one point with less than four minutes of game time remaining, Patterson received the ball backward of centre \u2013 and showed off that lightning speed. He sprinted away from two WA opponents, took a bounce, baulked a third opponent, took a second bounce, ran to the 50m arc and pulled off a perfect kick to leading forward Max King, who rewarded Patterson\u2019s effort with a match-winning goal.<\/p>\n
Foxfooty.com.au suggested to Patterson at this month\u2019s draft combine that play summed him up as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone sees the running and the power and stuff like that, but a bit more in depth is more the thinking process and the fact that I know I can get the job done and that I\u2019m happy to take all responsibility,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause if I mess that up, it\u2019s on me \u2013 but I know I can get it done and I\u2019m willing to put everything on the line to get it done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that sums me up a bit more, the fact that I\u2019m willing to take a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I WOULDN\u2019T SAY NO\u2019: THE LURE OF LEAGUE<\/p>\n
Patterson was also willing to take a risk in his mid-teens, choosing to pursue footy over rugby league.<\/p>\n
He was a talented league fullback at both club and school level. When he was 15, he received contract offers from four NRL-aligned clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I miss everything about it, to be honest,\u201d Patterson says of his love for rugby league. \u201cBut it\u2019s the same with a lot of things: You miss things because of the memories you create from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very enjoyable time for me, I could see success coming from it. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean I want to go back to it, but if I had a chance to play one more game, I wouldn\u2019t say no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Patterson of the AFL National Academy. Picture: Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos\/via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Patterson for a couple of years was able to balance both sports. But when he hit a crossroads that forced him to choose just one sport, he opted for footy \u2013 a sport that\u2019s \u201ca bit more entertaining\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more variety in it. Things can happen all the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like in rugby league, there might be an occasional linebreak or something and then everyone\u2019s up, which makes it exciting. But in footy, there\u2019s just always something happening \u2013 and you don\u2019t get that in rugby league. Scores are low, but that\u2019s why when they score it\u2019s so exciting. But in footy, the momentum changes all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not taking anything away from rugby league, because there\u2019s very skilled players and I\u2019m friends with some very skilled contracted players at my age. But I think AFL, you need to be so much more skilled and it just requires a more overall athletic profile. You can\u2019t just get away with being only good at one thing, you have to be capable of doing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patterson says it was his \u201cindependent decision\u201d to drop rugby league \u2013 \u201cif people are telling you what to do, you shouldn\u2019t be taking points from them\u201d \u2013 but adds he ran his call by his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said: \u2018It\u2019s up to you, you\u2019re in control of your life and I\u2019ll support you no matter what.\u2019 That just told me everything I needed to know,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Dylan Patterson of the Gold Coast Suns Academy. Picture: Craig Dooley\/AFL PhotosSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u2018THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON\u2019<\/p>\n
Patterson and his dad have an incredibly tight bond. He describes his old man as \u201cdefinitely the most important person in my life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done everything he could to get me into the position where I am,\u201d Patterson says. \u201cHe would do anything for me and I\u2019m forever in debt to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s also what helped me make a decision between AFL and rugby league, because I saw what he\u2019d done for me to try and make the AFL and I want to reward him as much as myself.<\/p>\n
Patterson, during his early schooling days, \u201cmoved a lot to try to get in the best spot to play the best possible footy\u201d.<\/p>\n
He initially lived in Gatton \u2013 a rural town around 90km west of Brisbane \u2013 before relocating north of the city to Beachmere, which is close to Bribie Island. He went to a Beachmere school for \u201cnot very long\u201d before transferring to a primary school on Bribie Island.<\/p>\n
The Bribie Island high school, however, \u201cwasn\u2019t much of a sport factory\u201d, prompting a move back inland to Narangba Valley State School.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had AFL there and Dad was just interested in having a look at that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up going there for a year and a little bit to start my high school journey. But at the end of the day the environment wasn\u2019t the best and Dad knew that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started tossing up other options and we ended up moving down south \u2013 and we\u2019ve been at the same place (Palm Beach Currumbin State High School) since.<\/p>\n
Petracca traded to Suns for three picks | 02:01<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy that everything\u2019s gone the way it has and hopefully there\u2019s a bit of reward on the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patterson says his dad \u201cjust makes everything work\u201d and has \u201calways looked for my best interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would drive me a long way, he would make sure I always had what I needed. Footy-related, he would do anything just to make sure I\u2019m in the right position,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t take away from everything else \u2013 he got me into a better school to get into a better environment. He just wants the best for me in every way possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he also wants me to be a kid and be able to enjoy my childhood, so letting me roam around and learn from mistakes, it means I learn myself and not him just telling me not to go do something.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go play my first AFL game, that will reward him just as much as it rewards me because he knows he\u2019s done probably just as much, or even more work, than I have to make sure I\u2019ve been able to have the right lifestyle and been around the right people to be able to get to this point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dylan Patterson\u2019s confidence is refreshing and admirable. It\u2019s not arrogance, it\u2019s pure self-belief. The explosive Suns academy utility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[139163,139154,3445,139152,139159,638,64,63,689,55,3449,639,139155,3423,139169,139150,651,19120,62280,93797,120008,127778,109667,3451,139160,51244,139168,12099,2105,2485,3503,139157,139167,139161,26876,3502,7804,139151,139153,15675,677,701,139166,159,139170,139156,1820,85,139158,139164,139165,139162,97772,91338],"class_list":["post-230843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-academy-bid","tag-academy-group","tag-academy-prospect","tag-academy-series","tag-academy-utility","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-football-league-academy","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-beachmere-school","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bold-kicks","tag-born-ready","tag-brisbane","tag-christian-petracca","tag-contract-offers","tag-craig-dooley","tag-draft-combine","tag-draft-mail","tag-draft-pool","tag-dylan-patterson","tag-fellow-draft-prospects","tag-first-round-draft-picks","tag-footballer-life","tag-game-time","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns-academy","tag-independent-decision","tag-lethal-athletic-combination","tag-lightning-speed","tag-match-winning-goal","tag-max-king","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-momentum-changes","tag-narangba-valley-state-school","tag-national-academy","tag-oceania","tag-queensland","tag-right-foot-kicking-capabilities","tag-rugby-league","tag-school-journey","tag-school-level","tag-score-involvements","tag-sports","tag-stat-sheets","tag-state-league-opposition","tag-state-school","tag-talented-league","tag-watch-live-coverage","tag-win-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}