Written off as too small and not good enough, Kieren Jack will prove the knockers wrong again when he makes his 100th AFL appearance for Sydney this week.
While he won a club best and fairest in 2010 and represented Australia in the International Rules series that year, Jack’s AFL career was almost stillborn.
The son of rugby league legend Garry Jack, Kieren chose Australian rules ahead of the 13-a-side code when he was 15, but struggled to convince AFL officials he had the goods.
“There was a lot of knockers for Kieren and there was probably a few at this club as well, that had question marks on whether he could play,” Sydney coach John Longmire told reporters on Thursday.
“Initially there were plenty of people who thought he was too small and (wondered) whether he had the skills to play AFL footy.
“There was a lot of doubts on that, but he’s the one that didn’t have any doubt.
“The exciting thing for me and the club’s point of view is that we know he’s going to keep getting better because of the type of kid he is, and he’s only fairly young.”
After an injury-interrupted 2011, Jack is getting back to his best.
He tallied 83 touches and seven goals across Sydney’s past three games and said his body was feeling better than it had for a long time.
The 24-year-old midfielder said it had been a tough journey to his milestone, with many hours of practice before and after training in his early years helping bring his skills up to AFL standard.
“I think I missed a lot of the fundamentals of the game of AFL as a young kid growing up, certainly a little bit disadvantaged from the Victorian and South Australian kids,” Jack said.
“I probably wasn’t taught the knowledge of the game as well as they were.
“When I first got here, (I found out) how little I knew about the game.”
He named former Swan Jared Crouch as a key mentor and said he was inspired by another scion of NSW, former Swans captain Paul Kelly.
However, he still has some way to go to catch his famous father in the games stakes.
“He played 244, so until I get there, he’ll still think he’s got something over me,” Jack said.
Despite following his son’s burgeoning career closely, Jack senior still has to come to grips with the intricacies of AFL.
“He still tries to get me to chip over the top of players,” joked Jack.