Cam Ellis-Yolmen reflects on his football career and tough childhood in Adelaide

ST: What was it like watching your former Brisbane team-mates take on Collingwood in the grand final the other week?

CEY: It was a great game and I was definitely rooting for the Lions. I still feel like I could play at the elite level but I've taken two years off and I'm now in the position where I'm playing good footy again. I had the hand injury at the end of last year but that was an absolute accident, when I got stepped on, and I would have played the last three games. I feel like I'm covering the ground really well. When you're watching and you see the excitement from the crowd and the camaraderie and your former team-mates getting together after goals, you do start to miss it. But we were able to create a really good environment at Raiders. I will admit, at the start of the year, I was sceptical. I didn't know if I was going to keep playing footy or try coaching full-time but halfway through the year, I felt like I was back playing good footy and loving it. My body's taken to the work-life-footy balance and I've been firing, I've got that edge back. I guess Raiders brought the love back to footy for me. At the end of 2022, I was coming over here for more of a coaching role. I was always going to play but I didn't know how good I was going to be for the team and I didn't know what the standard was going to be like. But I came over here willing to learn from Marc Almond, who's been a great mentor for me, not just on the field but off the field. His knowledge of the league is tremendous and he's brought my coaching forward years in advance. He gave me the opportunity to take the reins against Lavington, which was an awesome opportunity to actually coach a senior team in the O and M.

ST: What was that like?

CEY: It was great - but it was definitely nerve-wracking. It's funny, I'll take training, I'll talk to the boys midweek, I'll talk to the boys on the ground but when you're on the other side and you haven't got a jersey on, it definitely feels a bit different. You know the boys are relying on you to pump them up, put them in the right direction and guide them on the field. There was a bit of pressure; it was a tough game because they're a good team and we didn't get the result I was hoping for but it was an awesome opportunity and I loved every bit of it. It's definitely something me and Marc have talked about doing a bit more next year - hopefully I'm not coaching because I'm injured - doing that player-coach role.

ST: So is senior coaching something you're really interested in?

CEY: It wasn't at the start, when I first came over here. I love developing players; at the end of 2021, I'd been injured all year and I didn't play any senior games but I played a fair few VFL games and I was helping develop the kids in a bit of a welfare role. The AFL team was away doing their thing, they got stuck in Perth for a bit so I was back with the young boys, helping them through training and being that leader, being that role model, someone to talk to as a senior player. I loved the development side of that year and getting the opportunity to come over and coach has been one of those stepping stones for me, from player development to coaching to senior coaching and you go through the leagues that way. It's something I'd definitely be open to doing eventually. You've got guys like Tim Broomhead, who's doing both at the moment, and I give it up to him because it's tough. For him to take the team from the bottom of the ladder to almost making finals is tremendous, I give him props. He's obviously a great leader and a great role model and he's got a smart footy brain. He's a gun player, hard to match up in this league. I'm not too sure if I'd be able to do both player and coach because it does take a lot of time. Marc's here all the time, helping out the young boys, going through edits, going through the GPS, the game day stats, doing reviews on the opposition teams so there is a lot involved. I'm probably not at that level yet but I'm happy to keep having a few games here and there next year and do my part as assistant coach. I'll probably end up running most of the pre-season; I missed out on last year because I didn't get here until the end of January and then I was playing up in Darwin a fair bit. It was a bit of a broken pre-season but we're definitely shifting the pre-season into the next gear, probably two or three gears to be honest, because we're unfortunately that far behind the top teams like Yarrawonga and Albury. That also comes with senior players, and we're doing our best to fill that in, but our fundamentals and our skills need to be stepped up a level and that's the plan for pre-season.

ST: How have you found all the changes this year - moving here, playing a different level of footy and getting a day job?

CEY: It's been pretty full-on. I'm working with Next Generation Energy, I got a job through the club and Dan Ladgrove, who's the boss and owner, he put me on as a labourer at the start and I absolutely loved it. That was in the pre-season and I got to the point where I was like 'far out, this is a viable career for me' - it's not just hard work, it's technical and the world's going into that space where everything's going digital and electrical with cars and everyone's getting solar these days. We've been so busy so it's been pretty full-on but the best thing I've found is I've been able to make friends not just at the footy club but away from it. Through the job, I've been able to explore Vic Country and all the spots around here, whether it's Rutherglen, Mulwala, Deni, Finley, even the opposite way going out towards Kanumbra. The crew Dan has there has been awesome and they're my mates not just at work but off the field as well so that's been great to settle me into country life and settle me into Wodonga.

ST: You lived in Adelaide, which was AFL mad, and then moved to Queensland, where the sporting culture was a little different, so what have you made of Albury-Wodonga in that sense?

CEY: It is footy-mad here but it's still got that relaxed country feel and that's what I really like. The young boys are so obsessed with footy, they want to get better and they want to learn from me. My life here is as an electrical apprentice and everything I do on the other side is footy and getting ready for the games, prepping and helping out 'Armo'. During the year, it's pretty full-on but a lot of the country people have lives outside of footy, which is great.

ST: Do you feel differently about your footy now that it has a different place in your life, and your day?

CEY: Definitely. I'm still super competitive and I wasn't happy with our result this year. Even though I could see the development in the boys and we came a long way from the first game to the last game, I still don't think it was good enough. I don't like losing. I can't be too hard on the boys because you have to find the fine line these days with helping develop and coach the kids but also you have to play with them as well. They do cop a little bit on the field because I'm such a competitive person, that's my nature, but I will always try to make it constructive and show them the direction we're trying to head in. Having a life outside of footy and different friends, a new town I can explore, I'm not just focused on myself, I'm focused on the players and helping them get better.

ST: Have you had to tailor your expectation of your team-mates because they're not professionals, they're all coming from a place of study or work to train and play?

CEY: Yes. I've got to remember it is country footy, it's not my job any more. I've got to remember they're also here to enjoy footy and have fun, that footy's not the be-all and end-all, but that doesn't mean you can't have high standards and create a really good culture and make sure they understand the value of hard work. Yes, it might be a country footy team, yes, we're in the O and M, but you can still be professional and you can still have those goals and standards and want to be the best you can be.

ST: Presumably you look at the grand finalists, Yarrawonga and Albury, as two prime examples of that?

CEY: Absolutely. You look at the way those two teams play, the way they are as a team, they do everything to a tee, especially when you play them and you can hear them out on the field. They're constructive, they're in sync, and that's where I want to get the boys. Our culture is really good and we've got a group of young boys that is really tight but if I can help push and steer them into a professional outfit with good standards, which we need to elevate ourselves to the next level, I reckon we can be a very dangerous threat out on the footy field.

ST: Which players at the club excite you?

CEY: Look at the Rising Star, Nelson Bowey, who's come a long way from the first session when I got here. His kicking wasn't great but he came to me and asked for help so he worked on it and he slowly improved as the year went on and got the recognition for it. There's Ned Twycross, who could have played U18s, and Indhi Kotzur, who was one of the game-changers against Myrtleford. I was the runner and I challenged him at half-time and he really stepped up and showed that he wanted to be there and prove he was an A-grade ruckman. He helped us to that win to get us off the bottom of the ladder. Harvey Cribbes is a man-mountain already, with the little baby face, he's played a couple of games in the ones and showed he's capable of playing at that level. With a good pre-season and a bit more guidance, he can definitely be a mainstay in that first team. That's the exciting thing; there's so many U18 players who came up this year and played first-grade footy and not one of them, in all honesty, looked out of place. They looked comfortable, they looked like they wanted to be there and because our culture's so good, they were really in sync with the boys. They're not just friends on the field, they're friends off the field and you can really see that. They're so tight and they want to do it together. Me, Armo, Beau Packer and Joel Price are looking to add a few more seasoned players to come in and bolster our stocks and help guide the younger boys to keep the pressure on and keep our game plan going not just for one or two quarters but for four quarters. We've stuck with the top teams for maybe a half of footy or three quarters but, because of the immaturity of our team, we haven't been able to stay with them. But if we do add a few guys into the team, I'm sure we'll be able to not just stick with teams but over-run them. If you look at the stats from the games we played this year, we've shown teams we're not that far off the mark.

ST: How proud are you to represent not just your club but your mob, your people?

CEY: I'm a very proud Aboriginal and Papua New Guinean man. My family is from Ceduna in South Australia, they're all living in Adelaide at the moment. It's awesome to represent my culture but also show you can get out of the rut you're in and hopefully I can open some young Indigenous kids' eyes and show them - I've been to the bottom, I've lived in bad places and I've come from a tough upbringing - that you can make something of yourself and do things. It was tough to get to the AFL, where I came from, and even tougher to stay in the AFL. But through being strong and doing things I wanted to do and having the mentality that I can do whatever I put my mind to, that I can go anywhere... I've done so many things that I never dreamt of doing; even the thought of living on the Gold Coast, as a young kid, was crazy. I remember being in primary school and hearing about my class-mates going on trips to the Gold Coast and I thought I'd never, ever, get to do that but I got to live there and even go overseas to America and Europe, which was one of the biggest things I've ever done. As a kid that grew up in Salisbury North in Adelaide, you don't think of being able to do those things but through hard work, dedication and having that mindset that you can do anything, you don't have to listen your family, friends or people that think you're not going to go anywhere, or they don't want to go anywhere, you can do whatever you put your mind to. It's such a cliche but a lot of Indigenous kids grow up seeing their uncles and aunties, their family members and friends, just staying in the same place and doing the same thing but if you really want something different in your life, you can go and get it.

ST: What sort of hurdles did you have to overcome?

CEY: I had a broken upbringing, living with my Mum. I was in and out, living with my Grandpa and Grandma. Mum was part of the Stolen Generation so she was adopted so she didn't really know her Indigenous side growing up and it took a little bit of time for me to get to know my Indigenous side. It hit her hard hard and I didn't have the best childhood, going in and out of houses and in and out of the care of my Mum to my Nanna to my Grandpa. I didn't have a stable upbringing and I moved around Adelaide a lot to different schools and different houses. Luckily I had an amazing Grandpa and Nanna, who were able to put a roof over my head and I ended up living with my Nan from the age of 13 onwards. She's been unreal, she's been my No.1 supporter and she helped put me through high school. I lived with her through high school and then I got drafted to the Crows when I was 18. If I hadn't gone to live with my Nan, I probably wouldn't got by picked up by the Eagles and I've got to give credit to Woodville-West Torrens Eagles because they're one of the best footy clubs I went to. I got picked up by them in the development teams, so they really helped me with my footy and developed me into the football player which got drafted. It was tough, not growing up with your Dad or your Mum. Dad left when I was four years old, so I didn't have a relationship with him. It's tough when you're growing up through all those development teams and even in juniors, not having your parents there. I was living with Nanna and Grandpa but everyone else had their father to kick the footy with and stuff like that. It was tough but I guess I just love footy and it was a good escape on the weekend because I didn't have to think about real life. I could leave all of my emotions on the footy field and use what I was feeling from that tough upbringing and put it into footy and play well enough to get noticed by those development teams and scouts.

ST: Finding out that your Mum had been taken away from her biological parents, what was it like to explore your family history?

CEY: It was pretty full-on. To hear it from her side and to realise it wasn't that long ago these things were happening... You hear these things from the media and people online, non-Indigenous people complaining about how the Stolen Generation was ages ago, and that it's not our problem, but it wasn't that long ago and the damage that's been done has been passed on through generations. It's going to take time and it's going to take a huge effort from Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to close that gap and move forward together, which is what we really want. It was awesome to meet my Indigenous family, who live in Ceduna, and do the things I would have done if I grew up there. Hunting, fishing and hanging out with my cousins and brother boys, my family out that way. Once my Mum was able to close that gap and go back to meet them, when we were old enough, she brought us up there and we got to meet my biological family on my Indigenous side. It was awesome and I honestly felt at home. I love going to Ceduna, I was there over New Year with two of my cousins, we had a massive fishing trip and I caught some of the biggest fish I've ever caught. We went diving for scallops, picking oysters off the rocks and hanging out with their kids, it was one of the best New Year's I've had in so long. It's good to see family and bump into them at the shops and out on the beach around there. Recently I missed out on playing with Koonibba Mission, the team I would have played for in the South Australian knockout football carnival, but my older brother just had his first kid, a baby boy, so I went up to Toowoomba to visit him. I would love to go back there and play with him. Tyson Stengle, who's from where I'm from, played in the Koonibba Mission team, so I would have played with him and other cousins and brother boys. Unfortunately I didn't get to go and play with them but I told them I'd definitely commit for next year and go back to play. I've always wanted to do it. I didn't get to do it as an AFL player and the last couple of years have been pretty full-on, with everyone happening over here, so I've missed them, but next year I'm definitely going back to play there. I love being Aboriginal and being a mentor for kids. I didn't have the glorified AFL career that a lot of kids dream of having but I was able to get to the level. Honestly, playing one game was good enough for me. It's every kid's dream to play a game of AFL footy and I had Mum and my Nanna there in Perth, at Subiaco Oval, against Fremantle. It was one of the best feelings ever to get my guernsey given to me by my Nanna and my Mum, it was pretty surreal, to play in front of them, and any game after that was a bonus. I stayed in the AFL system for 10 years and that's not an easy feat. Three or four years is the average and for Indigenous players, it's less. I was able to show I was valuable enough and I could do the hard work and be that player who came in and played when I got the opportunity. Through injuries and bad luck, I wasn't able to play more games but hopefully through what I did in the AFL, and what I'm doing now, I can be a role model to young Aboriginal kids growing up, that they can do anything they want to do. Whether it's going into a trade, not thinking that you're too old, because I was 30 years old when I started. A lot of young Indigenous men think 'I'm too old' or 'maybe I'm past it' but you're never too old to do anything, you can get picked up. Look at Marlion Pickett, for example, who got picked up late, came in, won a VFL premiership and got picked to play the grand final in an AFL premiership. It's always been a big thing for me, as an Indigenous man, to show kids who come from a tough upbringing that life's not over. You don't have to follow the trends of your Mum, your aunties, uncles or the rest of your family and friends, you can break away and do other things. Sometimes you lose friends and family along the way but the real ones will stick around.

ST: Did you ever experience prejudice in the game?

CEY: Definitely. I heard remarks when I was growing up. It started in juniors, kids saying stupid stuff they probably didn't even understand. I grew up in a pretty rough neighbourhood around Salisbury and played for Modbury and there was people who would yell stuff out to me and try to get under my skin...

ST: Did they?

CEY: No. That's one thing I've never been bothered by. I've always grown up very happy with the person I am, the colour of my skin, the culture I have, I've always been proud of it, I've never been ashamed of it. Also, it helps having an older brother built like a brick shithouse who could back me up and look after me! I followed him through everything, he's probably one of the reasons why I made the AFL, because I was always trying to be better than him - at every sport I could possibly do. We did everything and I followed him like a shadow. He played footy and I always tried to be better than him. It was one of my greatest moments when he actually admitted I was better than him at footy. But it wouldn't have happened if he wasn't such a strong role model for me.

ST: What would you still like to achieve?

CEY: I know I'm 30 but who knows? I could have an amazing year next year and play good enough footy to be looked at as a mature-age player. I never think things are of reach. I know there's age and it would be very tough to get back into the AFL system but I never want to put that out of reach. With coaching, I'd love to go further and use next year as another stepping stone to get better at understanding the game of footy, learning from Marc and getting familiar with the player-coach balance. I want to keep learning as much as I can as an electrical apprentice and I'd definitely love to have my own electrical business. I want to do something on my own. I've always been that type of person, as you can see from my vaccine choices and personal lifestyle choices, I always do my own thing, I don't really follow the crowd. I'd love to run my own show, whether it's here or back on the east coast. One thing I wanted to try was NFL. I was looking at that when I got delisted in 2017 but obviously I got picked up again by Adelaide as a rookie so that got pushed aside. You're only as old as you feel, age is just a number, so who knows? If you do the right thing in front of the right person, I could get put back in the AFL, get picked up by someone else or go to a different code. You never know. I love my sport, I'm probably as competitive now as I was when I was 18.

ST: A few quickfire questions to finish. Who's the best player you've played with?

CEY: I learnt so much from Patrick Dangerfield, he was one of my favourite players to play with. I loved playing with Hugh Greenwood too. Unfortunately we got put against each other when we were at Adelaide, because we were such similar players, but if they'd put us together a bit more, we would have absolutely dominated the midfield when we were both fit and firing.

ST: Your toughest opponent?

CEY: Dustin Martin. I loved watching 'Dusty' and playing against him. He had lots of tricks up his sleeve, he's one of the most well-centred and well-grounded players I've ever played against, so hard to tackle, and he's got skills coming out of his bum! Honestly, he can do anything, kick left, right, goals from anywhere, and light the game up. I hate bringing it up because it was a sad time but watching him in the 2017 grand final, he just lit the ground up. It was tough watching it as an Adelaide Crows player but we were watching greatness in that moment. He went to another level which, unfortunately, Adelaide couldn't match and that brought the team up again. It was magical to watch.

ST: Your favourite ground?

CEY: Adelaide Oval. Easily the best ground I've ever played at. One of the best feelings in AFL is walking out to a Showdown when you have 55,000 people cheering you on. Even when it was a Port home game, they're all South Australians and they know it's going to be a tough, close game. Walking out to the middle in those games was one of the best feelings.

ST: Finally, if you could only watch one football game for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

CEY: I reckon it would be the first Richmond game we played after we lost the grand final. We had a chip on our shoulder and we came out and beat them after losing to them. That's one of the best AFL games I've played and it was one of the best feelings afterwards, to beat them and get back. It was unreal.

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