After missing out on place in the Southport Sharks' squad, Aussie Rules young gun Morgan Dunn has a plan.
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Dunn ventured to the Gold Coast at the end of 2020 for a five-week trial vying for a place in Southport's 2021 roster. But he fell agonisingly short, missing out by "two places".
The Sharks play in the North East Australian Rules Football competition, which is a tier below the AFL.
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While, admittedly, he was disappointed, Dunn has not been deterred by the knock back.
The 18-year-old is more "motivated" than ever to knuckle down and work on what he needs to with Southport already indicating they'll give him an opportunity to trial for the 2022 squad.
"I have learnt so much since being up there and will use that to my advantage next year," he said.
"I got a lot of feedback. They said, for me, one of the main things that let me down was my skills - I just wasn't sharp enough.
"Because up there if you drop a ball or miss a mark or miss a target or something like that, it really shows because all those guys up there are so clean and don't miss, it is so perfect.
"Also my fitness, I was mid-range but they said I could get a bit better in that.
"So I have a bit to work on still which is good because I wanted that feedback."
To give him the best chance of reaching those his goals, Dunn is planning a move to the sunshine state this year and trading in his New England Nomads' jersey for one in the Gold Coast competition.
"My plan is I am going to move back to the Gold Coast, and that is what they advised me anyway because their local league on the Gold Coast is apparently very, very good," he said.
"So they advised me to go back and play in that local league for the year. They can also watch me from there."
Dunn is no stranger to having to work hard in the sport to achieve his goals.
His journey has been a relatively short but successful one. The coming season will only be his sixth year playing Aussie Rules after starting out when he was 13-years-old. Back then, there wasn't even a competition within the local region for kids to play in.
It was his desire to play which played a part in the North West under 17 competition getting up and running, his dad, Neil, the driving force.
"At the time I was playing rugby union and, coming home in the car one afternoon, we were talking about stuff and I said 'geez it would be alright to have a go at AFL,'" Morgan said.
"From then on we looked into it a bit, got a few people's names and worked things out.
"He [Neil] got it going in the North West, the juniors anyway because the senior competition was already going but the juniors, he initiated that and we haven't looked back since."
If it wasn't for that conversation, Morgan might not have been able to play the sport which has seen him represent the Northern Inland Academy of Sport, the Sydney Swans Academy and New England Nomads seniors.
And he's very thankful for the "immense" impact his parents' had on his life and sport.
"I couldn't thank them enough for everything they have done from washing jerseys to starting the competition," he said.
"All this stuff I have been doing would never have happened without them."