By any measure, Aaron Edwards's journey through AFL ranks is

                  an extraordinary tale.                   

                  Samoan-born, Frankston-raised, rookie-list survivor, dumped

                  Eagle, history-making VFL star and now Kangaroos full-forward.

 

                  Add unwitting participant in West Coast's summer of strife

                  through police recordings only now dredged up, but more of

                  that later.

                  It has been an incredible ride for Edwards, still only 23 and

                  willing to concede he has done a lot of growing up in a short

                  space of time.

                  Not only is he the first Samoan-born player to play an AFL

                  game, but Edwards has come back from football's version of the

                  black hole.

                  Dumped rookies just don't get a second chance in the game via

                  the VFL, let alone little-known four-game forwards considered

                  undersized and not worth the trouble.

                  Yet Edwards - known by most as a curiosity via his 2005

                  eight-possession, five-mark, three-opponent first-quarter

                  debut against Richmond - has broken the mould.

                  After three years on the Eagles' rookie list (2003-05), he

                  knew his chances of an AFL recall were next to zero, but

                  rather than chase cash in the bush he was determined for one

                  last shot at the big time.

                  A season at Frankston started slowly, but culminated in a

                  10-match, 70-goal run, with Edwards notching his 100 goals

                  with his last major of his year.

                  By the time he had become the only player in the VFL's

                  129-year history to win the best-and-fairest and goalkicking

                  award in the same year, he had done enough to impress a

                  Kangaroos hierarchy that needed to replace Leigh Harding and

                  Sav Rocca's output.

                  Last week he played the best of his three games for the Roos

                  with his relentless leading and chasing.

                  "Obviously I took the long road, which is not ideal," Edwards

                  said.

                  "If I could do it all again I would take it a bit more

                  seriously in the first few years, but at least I have got

                  another chance and I have got a different head on my shoulders

                  than I did at West Coast.

                  "It's going to help me, and I am working on making a career

                  here and not just playing out my year to say I have played AFL

                  again.

                  "I got drafted and moved away and thought, 'How good is this?'

                  That attitude didn't help me, but now I am a lot more mature."

 

                  Aside from one incident, that rebelliousness never got Edwards

                  in major trouble, but despite solid WAFL form he admits he

                  coasted at times. But that one indiscretion would return to

                  haunt him when police phone-taps were released showing Daniel

                  Kerr and Edwards talking about drugs with convicted drug

                  dealer Shane Waters.

                  It came the week before the AFL season kicked off, and the

                  timing could not have been worse.

                  "It was four years ago and it was something in the past. You

                  never expect it to pop up," he said.

                  "I had finished training on a Friday evening and then got the

                  phone call from (football manager) Donald McDonald and I was

                  just thinking, 'What is going on?' I didn't actually know what

                  he was talking about at the start because if you ever got

                  taped on a phone call you wouldn't know you were taped anyway.

                  So it took two phone calls for me to have a conversation where

                  we both made sense.

                  "So we got through about four phone calls that night talking

                  with the club, and I went away for the weekend and got away

                  from it all.

                  "Then I played a VFL game that week and played seniors since,

                  and everything has been great.

                  "You start at a new club and they might not know what you are

                  like and you are trying to start off with a clean slate and

                  then that pops up.

                  "You have got guys who you have done a pre-season with, but

                  you don't know them that well and you don't want them to judge

                  you on something that happened four years ago, so it made it

                  hard.

                  "But the guys were great and so were the club."

                  Edwards - one of those likeable, slightly cheeky,

                  full-of-beans kids - recently bought a Southbank apartment and

                  is determined to find a niche in the AFL.

                  Thrust to prominence after Nathan Thompson's season-ending

                  knee injury, he is aware there are more chances, but more

                  pressure.

                  He is rotating through full-forward with Corey Jones, David

                  Hale and Leigh Brown.

                  "I am only on a one-year (contract) so I have pretty much got

                  to do something or I am in trouble. I have played the last

                  three games and missed Round 1, so I need to not just hold on

                  to my spot, but do better than holding on to it," he said.

                  "I want to be a regular player, not just someone who has done

                  enough to play again this week.

                  "I want to be regularly in the seniors, and hopefully I am

                  taking a few steps toward that."

                  Born to a Samoan mother and white New Zealand father with red

                  hair, which Edwards jokes he is lucky to have avoided, he is

                  growing increasingly aware of his roots.

                  Last year he added tribal tattoos on his left forearm and

                  right tricep, and he plans to return to Samoa for the first

                  time soon.

                  "I got the tattoo after I was delisted and I thought there

                  wasn't much chance of playing again," he said.