Earlier, Tom’s father Stephen and girlfriend Shanna had made the flight from Queensland after the news came through that the kid from Morningside would make the cut for his first senior match.
And they were there in the winner’s circle afterwards, as Tom posed with them in the photograph below for posterity.
“I’m just so proud of the boy. He’s worked hard for it, he’s made a few sacrifices in the past 18 months to get here, and it’s just unbelievable really. He missed being picked up in the rookie draft a couple of years ago and he missed the draft last year, but then Carlton picked him up, so there you go.”
Taken in the 2011 rookie draft at selection 14, the 21 year-old on-baller from Morningside had caught the eye of Carlton’s Recruiting Manager Wayne Hughes on a number of occasions through the 2011 season. At the time of Tom’s drafting, Hughes was quoted saying Tom ticked all the boxes at the rookie draft camp and made a good impression with his attitude. "Aerobically he's very good - a fifteen-and-a-half beep tester - and he's best described as a very tough footballer,” Hughes said then. “At 95 kg and 187 cm, he's built like a brick outhouse."
While he may be a self-made footballer (Stephen never kicked a Sherrin in anger), Tom’s father and late mother Mandy both excelled on the track - he as a distance runner, she as a sprinter.
Tom believed his mother was looking down on Saturday night. Tragically she succumbed to bowel cancer when Tom was but a 13 year-old, and yet Mandy’s passing served to bring the Bell family closer and Stephen was always there.
“As a parent you do a lot of running around for your children and I tried to do that. Sometimes you can’t do it when you’re balancing work with other family commitments, but you try,” Stephen said.
So was Dad floating given the events of Saturday night?
“Of course. What parent wouldn’t be floating when their child achieves what he or she sets out to do.”
