Shae McNamara is playing basketball again. Picture: Harman Stephan Source: HWT Image Library
WHEN American import Shae McNamara's AFL dream was snuffed out in December, he was thankful he had a back-up plan.
The 204cm Milwaukee giant would switch back to basketball.
The problem was, he hadn't touched a round ball in anger in three years.
"I had shoot around with Pendles (Magpie Scott Pendlebury), we'd played a bit of one on one, just horsing around," McNamara said.
Cut by Collingwood last August, he found his way to South East Australian Basketball League club Sandringham where he began training, hoping for a spot on their roster.
"I just thought it was another avenue to stay in this great city and great nation and just be an athlete," said McNamara, who lives near the Sandringham headquarters with his American fiancee Kari.
McNamara, 27, had played college ball in New York state and had spent a season with German Regionalliga club Dachau before he joined Collingwood as an international rookie for 2010.He was a poster boy for the AFL's international push, famously uploading a YouTube clip pitching his wares to league clubs, but failed to play a senior game.
"In short it was kind of like a perfect storm against me in a sense - I'd never seen the sport, I was developing from scratch and I was coming into their (the Magpies) peak years," McNamara said.
"Bucks (coach Nathan Buckley) re-signed me to play forward-ruck and then I never had the chance to compete there.
"They gave it to (Chris) Dawes and he was thrown in the deep end. They got exposed, that's one of the reasons we didn't win the Grand Final.
"That's not Dawes' fault. He was put in a position for him not to succeed ... I was promised that I would have that spot or at least fight for it and I was thrown to defence, which I'd never played.
"That didn't make any sense to me or my teammates. I wish I'd had the opportunity to at least fail or succeed and I never had that."
His return to the game he loves came after his second shot at AFL slipped away.
He trialled for a tall man's spot at Hawthorn, receiving the bad news on December 11, rookie draft day, as he was working out in the Sandringham Sabres gym.
"As I'm walking out I'm just like 'oh man' and then literally two steps later I see the GM Vince (Sandringham chief executive Vince Crivelli)," he said.
"He goes 'So, big day hey?' I just showed him the iPhone with the text. And he reads it and says, 'unlucky but we want you, so you're good'."
McNamara now wants to play basketball in the NBL, or Europe again.
"This is essentially the off season so my opportunity is to use this as a resume builder. This is like an internship," he said.
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