Jack’s down back a

AS a kid, Jack Henry had front row seats in the old Doug Wade Stand at Kardinia Park with his parents and two brothers.

It was on those wooden seats in a grandstand now replaced where his deep-seated passion for Geelong was born.

“We were right among it there, it was a pretty good spot, I loved it,” Henry said.

He was eight when he first became a member, in 2007, watching players such as Matthew Scarlett and Corey Enright at the peak of their powers, mesmerising their opponents and the crowd. Now 19, he is coached by them.

Henry has largely grown up knowing Geelong only as a powerhouse, only as a side that knows how to win, and fondly recalls being in the crowd at the MCG for the spoils of the Cats’ Grand Final success.

“I went to all three of the premierships, which I was very lucky to see. It’s pretty surreal now, I get to pull on the hoops and get to strive for one myself,” he said.

Henry is as Geelong as Geelong can be.

A Newtown local, he lives strolling distance from Kardinia Park, played junior footy from Auskick to under18s at St Mary’s, where his grandfather Ray Henry is a life member, went to school at St Joseph’s College, where he played a leading role in the school’s Herald Sun Shield win on the MCG in 2016, and was rookie-listed out of the Geelong Falcons.

There are not too many cases like that in AFL footy these days. The national draft has taken away a lot of the local romance in league football.

But while footy was always his passion, there was a time when he could have been an international athletics contender. The legacy of those years is seen each week in the way he covers the ground, the way he flies for marks and the dash he has with ball in hand.

In 2015, during his bottom-age year at the Geelong Falcons, Henry came third at a national junior level in the decathlon, powered by a set of spring-loaded legs that pushed him to elite levels in high jump and hurdles. Athletics seemed his destiny. His older brother Tom had represented Australia in high jump at the Commonwealth Youth Games, and his parents were also accomplished athletes in their own right — mum Karen a former sprinter who still clocks regular 15km runs, dad Brendan a former statelevel decathlete.

But after reaching the podium at those national titles, that was it for Henry. The sliding doors moment came, he followed his heart and chose footy.

“I took it (athletics) seriously, but I never wanted to give up footy,” he said.

“I enjoyed doing it, I wanted to give it a good hard crack while I had the opportunity at that age, but once I finished up as a 16 or 17-year-old, I was more than happy to put my focus into footy.

“Realistically, I kind of knew that I wouldn’t have made the Olympics. If I gave up footy (for athletics), I might have been a chance to maybe do a world juniors, but it was never really my main passion. My mates and I, we were just footy, footy.”

ANDY Allthorpe remembers the day Henry emerged as a draft contender. Recruiters always had an eye on the Geelong Falcons and in Round 1, 2016, they descended on thenSimonds Stadium for the clash against North Ballarat for a look at the next wave of players.

The highly rated Alex Witherden (now at Brisbane Lions) was playing for the Falcons, so, too, a hot bottomage prospect in James Worpel (Hawthorn) and towering ruckman Sean Darcy (Fremantle). There was interest in Max Augerinos, the highleaping forward Brett Blair and Zach Zdybel.

They were there to watch everyone but him it seemed. Or if he was on any watchlist, he would have been low after playing only a handful of games late in 2015.

But Henry stole the show with five goals as a roaming wingman who rotated forward, showcasing all his athletic traits in one afternoon that gave recruiters a taste of things to come.

“He was on fire, just the space he had,” said Allthorpe, who coached the Geelong Falcons between 2012-16.

“And the TAC Cup (antidensity) rules suited him, because he was so explosive on the lead, and so good at covering the ground, he was always in space. The more room he had, the more dangerous he was.”

Allthorpe said Henry was rarely fazed by any challenge and always stayed composed — a trait he believes was honed from his days on the athletics track.

“One thing I remember about Jack is nothing seemed to faze him, he just seemed to take everything in his stride, he was never overawed by the experience and he enjoyed being part of it,” he said. “I don’t know if that came from the athletics background, where you compete on your own at a national level and probably learn to handle those pressure situations on your own.”

Even with the hype, Henry eventually slipped to the rookie draft.

“I was a bit surprised that no one actually drafted him,” Allthorpe said. “I thought that of all the guys we had at the Falcons, he was the one who had so much improvement in him once he had more training and more time in a footy program.

“He was always going to improve and develop to be an AFL player.

“He was great across half-forward, hitting-up for us, and we played him on the wing and it’s great to see he’s adapted his game even more to play down back.

“Because he doesn’t get fazed by anything, they’ve probably thrown him down there and knew he’d adapt