Over his 99 games Nick Haynes has become renowned for running back with the flight of the ball and cutting off opposition attacks with brave intercept marks.
But, when Haynes joined the GIANTS with pick seven of the 2011 NAB AFL Draft he wasn’t known for his courage.
It took a simple cross on a sheet of paper to change that.
“In my first year I had an end of year review and next to courage box the coaches put a cross and that really stuck with me,” Haynes recalls.
“It drove me to never be labelled not courageous again.
“I’ve kept that in the back of my mind and I wanted to prove to my club and my peers that they could trust me to be a courageous player.
“They can back me in because if it’s my turn to go, it’s my turn to go for the team.”
Haynes credits two of his teenage passions with instilling him with an almost casual sense of bravery.
“In skimboarding and skateboarding you just really go for it, you don’t worry about the consequences you just go for it like in football,” he said.
“It’s when you half commit to the contest is when you get hurt. I’ve not been injured yet – touch wood – going back with the flight.”
What makes Haynes’ transformation into one of the best intercept marks in the competition more remarkable is that he was drafted as a forward.
When he met then-GIANTS coach Kevin Sheedy for the first time on draft night, Sheedy told a 19-years-old Haynes that within five years he’d become a centre half-back.
It took less than a year for that to become a reality. When Chad Cornes was withdrawn from the GIANTS’ round 22, 2012 clash with St Kilda the night before the game, Haynes was told he’d be playing down back.
Haynes settled into the role but admits it took him a while to adapt to the AFL system as a whole.
“Obviously I was pretty raw at the start, I weighed 77 kilos I think and had only played the one year semi-professionally at the Dandenong Stingrays so when I came here it was a bit of a shock to the system,” he said.
“I was a pretty casual bloke who went about doing things pretty casually, but I realised that to play this game consistently it’s a 24/7 job.
“Using your time at the club well and how you use your body outside of the club is really important and building habits around that.”
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One of the habits that Haynes has built in recent years is a devotion to Pilates. The defender believes the workouts have helped him fight injury and become a consistent performer in the GIANTS’ line-up over the past three seasons.
“I got osteitis pubis in 2015 I think and when I came back Pilates was recommended to me by the club,” he explained.
“Since I did that I’ve strengthened up my muscles and I’ve had no groin soreness since, so I thought I could get a lot of extra benefit out of that for my whole body.
“During the pre-season I did some extra Pilates to make sure I target areas of my body that you don’t hit in the weights room.
“Since I’ve been doing my extra Pilates my body’s the best it’s ever felt.”
Haynes has changed as a player since 2012 and so have the GIANTS. They’ve gone from the easy beats of the competition to playing in consecutive preliminary finals.
“It was all about learning back then, you could either shy away from it or grow from it,” he said about the early years at the GIANTS.
“The losses that we had and the poor games that I played personally helped me grow and become a better player.
“The club’s now going well and that’s the best thing about it. In the seven years we could have gone anywhere but we’re still trending up and I’m looking forward to the years to come as well.”
The GIANTS head into Sunday’s game against Carlton at Etihad Stadium needing a win to press their claims for a top-four spot.
While the game is a 100-game milestone for the 26-year-old, all he is looking for is another four points.
“It’s been a really up and down season, but it’s been enjoyable for me. We started the season pretty well then we had that form slump during the middle of the year, so we worked on a few things,” he said.
“The best thing about that is during those four losses in a row there was no blame game, we just needed to fix a few things, but the confidence and the belief was still there and that’s shown in the last eight weeks.
“Hopefully we can keep on going the way we’re going.”
