LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, MINUS THE SCONES
ANDREW Bews’ biggest concern in the lead-up to the 1989 grand final was how many scones he’d consumed.
The Geelong rover was working as a plumber and his boss thought it was a good idea to put him on maintenance duty ahead of the biggest game of his career.
“You wouldn‘t believe it but I nearly turned out as fat as mud from that week on the tools because every time I walked into a house, the lady of the house would say, ’Andrew, you’re playing this week, we’d better get you some scones’,” he said.
“I ate so many scones that week it wasn‘t funny.”
Fast-forward 31 years and his son Jed Bews won‘t be laying eyes on a scone.
While his father had to deal with thousands at training, catching a bus up and back to the grand final parade in Melbourne and constant wellwishers, Jed‘s biggest dilemma in his grand final build-up has been which Gold Coast cafe he’ll choose for his morning coffee.
Andrew was part of what many believe is the greatest grand final in history where the Gary Ablett-inspired Cats came up just six points short against Hawthorn.
“Every now and then, they chuck the replay on Fox Footy and everyone kind of talks about it a little bit,” Jed said.
“Mum still hates watching it, Dad has sat through it a couple of times. It‘s one of the best ones ever, but hopefully we can go a little bit better this time and get the win.”
Jed had a video call with his parents after the preliminary final win over Brisbane and has had a quiet word with his father about what to expect on the biggest stage.
“I just told him to make sure you enjoy yourself and then you‘ll probably be OK,” Andrew said.
”If you do OK more times than your opponent and everyone does OK more times than their opponents, then you’re a good chance to win.
“But you can‘t beat yourself up on one blue, you just keep going.”
After not being picked in Round 1, Jed has pulled together the best season of his career.
He arrived at Kardinia Park in 2011, just after the Cats won the flag, and took 2½ years to chalk up his first game.
Untimely injuries have hampered the 26-year-old but he cracked the 100-game milestone in the qualifying final against Port Adelaide.
Away from the footy field,
Jed is quite the entrepreneur and has been running building development projects and monitoring a flourishing share portfolio p on his laptop.
But he said his biggest masterstroke over the past three months had been to get his car sent up to Queensland. ”When we realised we were going to be up here for a while, myself and Lachie Henderson got our cars sent up on a truck,” Jed said.
“It just gives me that freedom to go down the beach whenever I want and get my takeaway coffee.”
In Geelong, it‘s not coffee on his father’s mind but a special bottle of champagne he has been waiting to open. “I got given this bottle of champagne in 1989. It‘s a
Moet & Chandon and I’m ready to do something ridiculous with it if the boys can win this,” he said.