TWO DAYS before I am meant to phone Travis Boak for this article, I ring him by accident. "Travis speaking," he answers, before I realise my mistake, apologise and explain I had confused his phone number for someone else’s.

Online Game Day: Power vs Crows

He laughs, gives me a "No worries" and says we’ll talk on Thursday.

On Thursday, at about 3.15pm Adelaide time, I call Boak again. "Mate, are you able to call me back in 15 minutes?" he asks. "I’m just getting some acupuncture done."

Twenty minutes later, after one premature call and another interrupted
by needles being inserted into Boak’s back, groin, and hamstrings, we’re
ready. "Where do we start?" he says. Good question. 

It’s impossible to separate Boak’s personal life from his football career.

Both have been so closely linked that to disconnect and pull apart his life as a Port Adelaide midfielder and captain-in-waiting from his position as brother, son and friend is to suggest they are mutually exclusive. With Boak, it’s not the case.

The 22-year-old is as much - if not more - family man as he is footballer.

Boak grew up in Torquay, a popular Victorian holiday destination known for its surfing culture and the birthplace of iconic brands Rip Curl and Quicksilver.

Travis’s father Roger Boak was a local sporting legend. He was a life member of Torquay Football Club, having played 230 games, including four premierships. Good judges suggest he could have played at the elite level.

Travis’s mother Chicki was a star of the local netball league. He has two sisters: Sarah, who is older than him, and Cassie, four years his junior.

Cricket was Travis Boak’s early passion, with football not as high on the agenda. He played in an under-14 premiership with Torquay - coached by his father - but Boak, a fast-bowler who was also a classy batsman with a damaging cover drive, had still not set his sights on an AFL career.

It wasn’t until he was 15 and developed stress fractures in his back that football became a priority.

"When I was growing up, I never thought I’d end up playing AFL or cricket for Australia," Boak says. He is either inherently modest or had a somewhat naïve view of how well he was doing, for as many have since suggested, Boak’s natural football instincts were regularly spotted, and acknowledged, by recruiters.

Boak’s first appearance in a representative team was at under-15 level when he was selected for Victoria. He toured Ireland with the under-17 Australian Institute of Sport-AFL Academy squad. And by November of 2006, Port Adelaide considered Boak good enough to draft him with its No. 5 pick.
Granted, being among his elite peers aided his development. But it was the two years leading up to the 2006 draft that forced Boak to mature rapidly, especially in a non-football sense.

Eighteen months after being diagnosed with stomach cancer, Roger Boak died (in May of 2005), aged 48. The funeral service was held at the Torquay football and cricket ground, with more than 1000 people in attendance.

The wake, fittingly, was held in the club’s function centre, named the Roger Boak Bar.

Travis Boak says the hardest part of coping with his father’s illness was the trip to Ireland in early 2005. His mum and sister Cassie joined him on the trip, but Roger stayed at home.

"That was the time when he got sickest, but having Mum and my sister there was huge for me. Their support and them saying ‘Dad’s holding on’ was great and it wasn’t long after I got back that he passed away," Boak says.

"Having that strength to hold on so I could get back and see him was a great feeling."

It’s through this part of our conversation where it’s impossible not to be impressed by Boak. He could just as easily, and politely, say it wasn’t something he wanted to discuss. Or, like some players are increasingly doing, could have relayed a message about certain topics being out of bounds through the club’s media manager.

But Boak seems to enjoy such introspection and reflection. If it’s a chance to talk about his dad - whom he describes as his "idol" - then he won’t dismiss it, despite its sensitivity. Life’s innocence may have been dashed early for Boak, but he’s using the experience as a spur.

"When times get tough with footy, whether it be pre-season when you have to go out and do six laps, or whatever it is, I just think, ‘This is nothing compared to what Dad went through’.
 
"He battled for two years and some of the pain he went through was just incredible, and I’m complaining about running a lap," Boak says.

"Once he passed away, it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this for Dad. Every game, I run out on the ground and I look up at the sky and say, ‘Dad, I’m here’. Obviously, I play for the club, and my mates, and the enjoyment, but it’s good to play for your family as well."

Boak is hard to describe. He’s of middle-range height, has a strong
but stocky torso, and his legs are thin. When he first got to Port Adelaide, he was a bright, fresh-faced, scruffy-haired teenager. Now, five seasons on, he’s not only built up his body, but his dark hair is closely cropped and he sports stylish stubble. His on-field presence is his standout characteristic.

Since making his debut in 2007 - he played 14 games that season, including Port Adelaide’s 119-point Grand Final loss to Geelong - Boak has been earmarked as a star midfielder of the future. Certainly, he has all the qualities.

He has pace, strength over the ball, is smart when in possession, and has the thing that defines good players: time. At every opportunity, Port looks to him as its prime mover through the midfield.

In his first season, Boak says, he was holding back his own instincts to run with the ball. It’s an area of his game he has tried to improve each season.

"Early on, I was really hesitant taking players on and running, and that confidence doesn’t really come to you until a couple of years playing at the top level. The coaches have given me that confidence to back myself," he says.

That confidence appeared to peak in 2010, a year he describes as "a bit weird".

In the pre-season against Collingwood, Boak slightly tore his groin, but carefully managed the injury through the season.

He was able to play the rest of the year with the injury and finished having played in 20 games - the highest tally of his AFL career - averaged 23 touches and also picked up 16 Brownlow Medal votes (a top-10 finish). He finished fourth in the club’s best and fairest award.

"I’ve started to realise over the past couple of years that I belong out there, and though I battled to train during the week last year, once I got into the game, I just felt this confidence in my body and in myself and my teammates," Boak says.

"Obviously, we didn’t get enough wins to make the finals, but it’s something we look forward to in years ahead."

There is, however, a lot of improvement left in him. In 2010, 43 per cent of his possessions were won in contested situations. This season, after looking at the way Blue Chris Judd, Saint Lenny Hayes and Cat Joel Selwood (his AIS-AFL Academy team captain) play, he has been working on getting more uncontested possessions. Boak admits he needs to find more easy touches to go from the very good player he is now to the great one he can become.

"Those guys do both so well and you need to have both sides to your game. I was probably more of an outside, running player growing up as a junior and had to develop my ‘inside’ game. I’ve done that, but now I need to go back and improve the outside stuff as well," he says.

His lead-up to this season was far from ideal. After off-season surgery to repair his groin injury, Boak suffered a knee injury and then had surgery for a supposed appendicitis.

It’s at this point I tell the chatty Power on-baller that I had heard the appendicitis was actually misdiagnosed. "Who have you been speaking to?" he asks with a laugh, before confirming the rumour.

"My stomach was feeling pretty crook for a couple of weeks, and I went and saw one of the surgeons and he thought it could be my appendix, so he said, ‘Let’s take it out’.

"I went into the operation, he took it out, and then he came out and said there was nothing wrong with the appendix and it was just a bowel infection. At least it won’t happen again."

Boak was under the spotlight last year, but denies he was under pressure. His two-year contract with the Power was due to expire and he delayed his decision to sign with the club again, placing his future in question.

Was he headed to Gold Coast? Was he going back home to Geelong? Was he lost to Port?

Boak, however, says there was "no pressure". Underlining his relationship with his family - a relationship continuing to grow, evolve and strengthen - Boak took time to make the decision because he wanted to be certain his family was managing back home without him.

"I wanted to sit down and make sure I was making the right decision, and I’m more than happy with the decision I made. I wanted to make sure they were happy with me over in Adelaide, because I love being in Adelaide and at the club," Boak says.

Chicki visits Adelaide regularly, and even last year, when Boak was recovering from his groin operation, she stayed at his house, where teammate Robbie Gray (another Victorian) also lives.
 
Having formerly made the lunches for the local cricket team - teammates used to want to be in Travis’ side just to enjoy Chicki’s meals - her homemade sausage rolls became a hit with his teammates when helping her son recuperate.

"She’s a great mum," he says with a laugh. "I couldn’t ask for anything more and I’m indebted to her for the rest of my life. And everyone loves the sausage rolls."

Boak is clearly smart. And, when he speaks, he’s sincere. According to everyone who has seen his football progression, he is also quiet and reserved.

Now, though still shy, he realises it is part of his role in the club’s leadership group to help others come out of their shells.

Although he dodges the question over whether he wants to be Port Adelaide’s next captain - "It’d be a fantastic honour, but Domenic Cassisi is doing a great job" - he’s taken it upon himself to help the likes of Ben Jacobs, Ben Newton and Hamish Hartlett grow up quickly.

"I’m a pretty shy kind of guy, and it took a few years for me to settle in and think I actually had something to say and that people would listen to me," he says. "But now, if I do have an opinion, I will express it in meetings, be it in a line meeting or a team meeting or a leadership meeting. I want those guys to speak up a lot earlier than I did."

In many ways, Boak is both an average - and extraordinary - 22-year-old. His spare room downstairs at his house is dedicated to his PlayStation 3 console. He enjoys surfing when he has the time. He partakes in regular games of tournament poker. He travelled to Las Vegas last October for some fun and, when he goes back to Torquay, he slides in without fanfare, generally getting around in boardshorts and a pair of thongs.

But he is also very different to most his age. Football has opened up opportunities few would have been given. He’s the ambassador for the Childhood Cancer Association, is the most marketable face of his club and gets around in a new silver Audi A1.

The advantages of his profession are obvious, but he’s also already experienced more of life’s extremes than most his age. And still, he remains optimistic. 

"The way things are at the moment, it’s been a bit of a bumpy road, but you have to stay positive and look to the good times ahead," he says.

"With a great family and friends and the club around me, it’s just such a great environment and a great life. It’s a short life, so you’ve got
to be happy."

A wiz on the PlayStation, too

At the end of our interview, I put it to Boak that we should play an online game of FIFA 11 (the world’s most popular simulated soccer game) over the PlayStation 3 network. "That’d be great," he says, "as long as you’re up for the challenge."

A few nights later, we set up a game. For those unaware, a game generally consists of two six-minute halves that reflect a real soccer match’s 90-minute duration.

Boak chooses to play as English Premier League club Chelsea and I pick Italian Serie A giant Inter Milan. Things start well. A ninth-minute strike from Diego Milito puts me in the lead, but it’s short-lived as Boak hits back with a 14-minute goal from the Blues’ big man Didier Drogba.

He follows it up with another goal and all of a sudden the Port Adelaide midfielder has taken the lead. He finishes the half 2-1 up, but I had been unlucky: two shots hitting the woodwork and another missed penalty shot.

It wasn’t looking like my day, and that was confirmed soon after the break when Boak took a 3-1 lead in the 67th minute through a second goal to Florent Malouda. 

However, with a goal in the 88th minute, I still have a glimmer of hope. In possession, Boak tries to milk the clock. He kicks backwards, then backwards again, but I pick up on the tactic and rush up at him and cause a turnover. Milito is one-out with Petr Cech, Chelsea’s goalkeeper.

It’s me vs. Boak. I shoot left, only to see Boak pick the direction and stop the shot in the dying seconds. Then he rushes the ball back to the other end and Drogba, from 40m out, slams a strike into the crossbar. Chelsea wins 3-2. Boak is triumphant. 

Travis Boak
Born: August 1, 1988
Recruited from: Torquay/Geelong U18
Debut: Round 12, 2007 v Essendon
Height: 183cm  Weight: 83kg
Games: 72  Goals: 35
Player honours: NAB AFL Rising Star nominee 2007
Brownlow Medal: career votes 23