Cody’s choice – a bat or ball decision

By Jarrod Potter
TRENT Cody is approaching the problematic crossroads that causes headaches for some young sportsmen in Australia – choosing between football or cricket.
Cody, 17 from Narre Warren South, flies out to Tasmania on Monday to represent the Victorian under-17s cricket team, but is also knee-deep in football commitments.
He’s pretty busy at the moment – balancing Victorian commitments while playing for the Dandenong Panthers second XI in Victorian Premier Cricket and pre-season training with the Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup.
He plays the role of the mid-sized accumulator in both sports – as an inside midfielder in football and as a middle order batsman and part-time off spinner in cricket.
“We head off next Monday for 10 days,” Cody said of the Victorian tour of Tasmania. “We play three one-dayers at the start, then two two-dayers and to finish up we’ve got two T20s.
“My favourite formats are probably the two-dayers and one-dayers.”
He played junior football and cricket all over the region. In cricket he has played for Bentleigh Uniting, Springvale South and Dandenong, while playing for St Peters, Endeavour Hills and now Noble Park in football.
Cody attends Hallam Senior College on a football scholarship and looked on with jealousy as the older boys ran out on the MCG earlier this year and won the schools final against Peninsula-Essendon Grammar School.
“Year 10s weren’t allowed to play in the MCG game, so I was the waterboy,” Cody said.
“Hopefully next year Hallam gets back to the MCG so I can play this time.”
Athleticism and sporting expertise run deep in the veins at the Cody house, with Trent’s older brother Luke, who went through the Dandenong Stingrays system, currently playing for Noble Park in the Eastern Football League and Bentleigh Uniting in the Moorabbin Cricket Association.
Administrators from both sports would be eager to lock away Cody, but the choice isn’t clear-cut for him yet. He hopes another year in both systems will give him the necessary insight to make a life-altering decision. “Yeah, got my cricket mixed in with football at the moment, so I’ve got to make a decision soon.”
“Not too sure – maybe next year after leaning towards one side or the other, but I’m not too sure which way yet.”