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\n Ben Keays playing for Brisbane in a game against Sydney in May, 2017. (Paul Miller\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
Ben Keays would have been called a typical Brisbane Lions nuffy but, back then, they weren’t so typical.<\/p>\n
As a kid in Queensland besotted by Australian Rules football, Keays was an outlier.<\/p>\n
“There was definitely some tough moments being a football person up there, especially going to high school,” Keays told AAP.<\/p>\n
“Out of the whole cohort, there’s about three people that play footy or have any interest. All my mates had no idea about footy.”<\/p>\n
\n Ben Keays playing for Brisbane in a game against Sydney in May, 2017. (Paul Miller\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
The current Adelaide stalwart was linked to Brisbane, the footy club, before he knew it.<\/p>\n
Born in Melbourne in February 1997 – the season Fitzroy became the Brisbane Lions – Keays took after his father Matt, a mad Roy Boy whose grandfather Fred played for the club.<\/p>\n
“Dad was was actually Fitzroy diehard, so we inherited the Lions off him,” said Keays.<\/p>\n
His family moved to Brisbane when he was five-years-old.<\/p>\n
Now, 24 years later, he returns with the Crows to play the Lions in a Saturday night semi-final at the Gabba.<\/p>\n
“Whenever I go back to Brisbane, I think of all the footy I played for for the Morningside Panthers up there, and from five years old onwards just absolutely loving footy, loving the Lions, going every game,” Keays said.<\/p>\n
“Just to be able to run out on the Gabba and play, who knows how many more opportunities like that I’ll get?<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty special for me. It’s a venue that I hold close to my heart, having watched so many games there.”<\/p>\n
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\n Ben Keays playing against West Coast at the Gabba in his debut season of 2016. (Dan Peled\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
At school, Keays’ mates played rugby, soccer, basketball, cricket – never Australian rules.<\/p>\n
“I was the only footy person and sometimes you cop a fair bit of heat from the rugby people up there for playing aerial ping-pong and all sorts of other names,” he said.<\/p>\n
Keays became a Lions academy member aged 14, and played alongside current Brisbane captain Harris Andrews in Queensland’s under 18 team.<\/p>\n
An underage star, Keays was an under-18 All Australian in 2014 and 2015, the year he captained Queensland to a division two national title and won the Hunter Harrison medal as the carnival’s best div two player.<\/p>\n
The Lions selected Keays with pick 24, an academy selection, at the 2015 draft, and he made his debut in round one the next year.<\/p>\n
But after 30 games, and only four in his last two seasons, he was delisted at the end of 2019, Chris Fagan’s third season as coach.<\/p>\n
Adelaide took Keays with pick seven in the rookie draft and he became a pillar of the club’s rebuild under then first-year coach Matthew Nicks.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, he hasn’t missed a game since joining the Crows – 155 and counting.<\/p>\n
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\n Ben Keays trains in isolation during the COVID season of 2020, his first as an Adelaide Crow. (Darren England\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
Keays – who has club champion finishes of fifth, second, third, ninth, joint winner with Jordan Dawson, and fourth – was pivotal in Adelaide’s elimination final win over the Western Bulldogs last Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Not only did he curtail top Dog Bailey Dale, he kicked two goals among five score involvements and laid six tackles – four of them inside 50.<\/p>\n
“I just try and do the best I can for the team and execute my role,” he said of his performance.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes the opportunities pop up. Being able to take them is always nice and always important.<\/p>\n
“But keep playing for the team and if stuff happens off the back of that, then so be it. I’m just focused on how best I can help my mates out there.”<\/p>\n
Another sizeable obstacle looms this Saturday night when Keays returns to his beloved Gabba – a likely match-up with star defender and former teammate Dayne Zorko.<\/p>\n
“It’s a venue that I grew up watching all my footy at, week-in, week-out,” Keays said.<\/p>\n
“I was a supporter through a lot of the leaner years for the Lions, so didn’t get to watch many finals up there.<\/p>\n
“So to be able to take the field in a final in Brisbane in front of my family and friends – yeah, I can’t wipe the smile off my face.”<\/p>\n