Aussie Rules? No chance – Charlton keeper prospect Ashley Maynard-Brewer explains why football was always his focus

Ashley Maynard-Brewer spent the first 16 years of his life in Australia but has a very good answer on why football was the sport that he ended up focusing on.

“When I got to U13 or U14, cricket became long days in the field,” explained the Charlton Athletic goalkeeper, raised in Perth. “I’ve got English parents, so I was never playing Aussie Rules. I preferred football. My older brother shoved me in goal. And my mates all played it as well.”

Maynard-Brewer was born in Dunstable but his family moved Down Under when he was just a few months old after his Devon-raised father, a Plymouth fan, got a mining job in Sydney. They moved to the capital of Western Australia a couple of years later.

“Perth is quite far away from everything,” said the 22-year-old, who is on a season-long loan at Ross County. “There isn’t much opportunity there – especially in football. Growing up I always wanted to come to the UK.

“It was always English goalies that I looked up to. Dad got me a signed top from Paul Robinson and David James. He got it on eBay, so I don’t know how real it is! I still have it in my room. Joe Hart, Petr Cech and Ben Foster – all the ones in the Premier League at the time – were the other ones I watched.”

Maynard-Brewer’s determination to make his name over here saw him leave his family at the age of 16 and base himself in London – nigh on 9,000 miles away.

He had been playing for ECU Joondalup, whose goalkeeping coach is former Addicks player Andy Petterson.

Maynard-Brewer said:“I was over at 13 or 14, visiting family, and he set up for me to go to Charlton for a week – just to trial. That went well. I came back every year to train for a few weeks and at 16 I signed a two-year scholarship.”

Maynard-Brewer, who was part of the Socceroos squad for last summer’s Olympics, has learned to cope with homesickness.

“I kind of still have that now but I’ve got better at dealing with it,” he said. “Until 19 or 20 I struggled with that side of things.

“I had a good support group with Joe Francis [head of education at Charlton], TJ [Tracey] Leaburn the player liaison and Steve Avory [academy manager], who put something in my contract as a scholar to have my parents come over and visit. Charlton were nice enough to pay for that.

“The first year was really tough. I felt fine when I was at the training ground – being around my team-mates and coaches. But you have a lot of hours in the evening, I found that really hard being away from friends and family.

“I was lucky I had a lot of good people at the club to help me out as well as relatives over here I could see at weekends.”

Maynard-Brewer is highly rated and after non-league loans at Dulwich Hamlet, Chelmsford, Dover and Hampton & Richmond, the key objective was to get him out playing regular football this season to enhance his development.

He has made 17 Scottish Premiership appearances for Ross County but broke his nose in the 3-3 draw against Rangers at the end of last month, opening the door for Ross Laidlaw to come into the side.

“Being an academy player you are always viewed a little bit like that – I didn’t feel I was going to get the opportunity to play consistently if I didn’t get first-team experience and I think I was also told that,” said Maynard-Brewer.

“The best part has been playing games and getting away from Charlton, in the sense of being around a senior set-up.

“I’m seen as a senior player at Ross County. I’ve got used to that extra responsibility.

“I found the first four or five games pretty challenging.

“I’d had more than a year where I hadn’t been playing regularly – you can train all you want but being put in those first-team situations wasn’t something I was used to.

“It’s been good to learn and it’s going to put me in good stead when I go back to Charlton.

“The standard has been completely different to any loans I’ve been on before.

“It’s a very competitive league. I know Celtic and Rangers are the biggest teams but I’ve even found the so-called quote unquote ‘smaller teams’ to be really difficult.

“Every team here, because there aren’t as many as the Championship and League One, only 12, makes it different and so competitive.”

Maynard-Brewer is under contract until the summer of 2023 with Charlton also holding an option to extend those terms by a further 12 months.

“The message was that I’m not just getting dished out on loan because I’m not needed,” he said. “They wanted me to play games and contest for the number one spot when I get back.

“I’ve grown up at Charlton. A lot of people have helped me out there over the years. I’d love to play consistently in the future for Charlton.”

MAIN PHOTO: KEITH GILLARD