But after recovering from shoulder surgery, and while still dealing with his traumatic separation from long-time partner Gajdosova, the strapping 194-centimetre athlete decided to return to his sporting roots. Yet just as he was never sure where they would lead him, his only tennis plans now involve a summer pennant season with Liston in Williamstown.

''After everything that happened I needed a bit of a change,'' said Groth, 23, who was keen to gravitate to the matey environment of a team sport after so many solo years. ''Obviously I wasn't ready to go back and play tennis just yet, and whether I will be, I don't know, but I just thought I'd come back and play footy.''

On his first night at training, Groth tweaked his quadricep during a kicking drill. Different sport, different muscles (and extra ones, too, as he has already added 7-8 kilograms). He thought he was fit, but was soon reminded that footy requires another kind of endurance. After almost seven years, he needed a re-education on not just the skills, but the subtleties. Still, he is enthusiastic and ambitious, itching for a run in the seniors, yet not there quite yet.

''The twos are going to play finals, and I just need a lot of footy,'' he says. ''And then going into next year I'll do a pre-season, but then I'm not sure what I want to do. I wouldn't mind giving footy a bit of a crack; obviously I'm used to trying to achieve at a high level with tennis, so if I'm going to do something, I still want to try and give it as much of a go as I can.

''What that means, I don't know. Obviously, people need to take notice of me first, and I'm very new back to the game, but hopefully [with] my size and strength and athleticism, people maybe will take notice. My feel for the game's getting better each week, and it's a shame that there's only three games left before finals, really, because I'm really just getting into the swing of it.''