Jacka on the verge of realising a boyhood dream
about this moment since I was about 11 or 12 years old. (In) ’05, ’06, ’08, I was running water. I was just a young kid enjoying the success.
“With my old man president of the club for so many years and watching him go through those successful years — ’05, ’06 — it was just great.
“I’m hanging for the opportunity to be able to share some success with him and bring one home.”
Jacka said the experienced heads of co-coaches Reece Holwell and Brent Taylor and defender Adam Wiseman had helped calm his pre-grand final nerves.
But the Tigers have embraced grand final week and now have their eyes on today’s blockbuster against premiership favourite Inverleigh.
“Mark McDowell’s always got something up his sleeve,” Jacka said of the Hawks’ coach. “I’m sure there is something hiding up there. I don’t think we’ve seen all their shots fired yet.
“Come Saturday, we’ll be ready for whatever they throw at us.”
The Tigers have been comprehensively beaten by Inverleigh in their two matches this season, but there were legimitate excuses after their most recent loss, with several key players missing the game.
“It’s going to be interesting. We learnt a lot about ourselves from that day, I think,” Jacka said.
“We were missing four or five players and we’ve learnt probably not to be so reliant on the few that stood up that day.
“They missed their shots, but we certainly put them in positions where they weren’t easy to kick either.”
The Tigers looked impressive in their preliminary final victory over Bell Post Hill, and Jacka said it was important his side took that momentum into today’s game.
“Personally, I reflected on that on Saturday night and thought there is definitely a benefit from keeping that momentum going,” he said.
“We’ve got a pretty steam ahead’ attitude.”
The Hawks will be without star goal kicker Jak KennedyHunt, who suffered a seasonending knee injury midway through the season.
While many would see that as one less headache for Thomson’s defence to deal with, Jacka said it could make Inverleigh a more dangerous opponent going forward.
“I’m good mates with Jak. I’d be lying to say he wasn’t a massive out for them, but the way ‘full they move that ball through there without him, they’ve got so many different options — they’re not a one-trick-pony kind of team,” he said. “We’ve seen (Simon) Seddon go down there and kick six or seven against Bell Post Hill. They’ve got options, so I would probably say they’d love to have him there, but it doesn’t bring them down a peg at all with or without him there. “They’re pretty experienced and they know what they were doing.”