Jack’s whack wrong
SEEING Jack Trengove delisted from Melbourne has made me feel sick in the guts and brought up frustrations I still have.
The club picked him at No.2 in the 2009 AFL draft. It also stuffed up his career.
It was a dirty era for the Demons. The administration made decisions based on marketing and media attention, rather than on what was best for the players.
Remember Jack Watts on Queen’s Birthday?
This week another soldier from that terrible time was farewelled.
In his seven seasons, Trengove has shown more maturity and class than his tender age should require. He turned 26 last week.
I hate bringing up the past like this, but we need to give Trengove credit for his time in the red and the blue.
Before the 2012 season the club saw an opportunity to make headlines and set a VFL/ AFL record.
The Demons thought, “let’s make a 20-year-old the captain. He’ll be the youngest ever. What a record to hold!’’
But Jack was about to start only his third season and had played 37 games. Along with Jack Grimes, who was 22, cocaptains were named.
It was another stupid deci- sion in a succession of stuff-ups from a club only now regaining respect.
A sore foot in the 2013 preseason kept Trengove on the sidelines, but he was determined to not let the team down.
He played 20 games that year. But his foot trouble flared again.
He relinquished the captaincy and, at 22, he was free to concentrate on healing the foot and playing football. But playing football was a challenge in itself.
For Jack, he only got to play in the red and the blue seven more times.
He’s realistic and he has always said he has no regrets.
He’s such a great fellow, his teammates love him.
You could hear the roar of the MCG crowd when he came off the bench six minutes into the first quarter against Port Adelaide.
The Melbourne faithful knew what he’d been put through. It was his first game for the year. His first in over 12 months, and it was his second last for the club.
We’re not to know if the foot injury he suffered would have flared anyway.
We’ll never know his full potential.
What we do know is he was drafted by a club that had no idea how to develop talent at that time.
In his career he played 86 games. He only got to sing the song 22 times.
Injury curtails many great players and Jack firmly believes that everything happens for a reason.
But the reason he was made captain still disappoints me.
He has almost finished his Bachelor of Business degree, majoring in banking and finance.
I’m sure when he’s running a corporation he’ll never treat his colleagues the way he was treated.
Maybe that’s the reason it happened.