McGuane may hang up boots
COLAC Tigers great Jake McGuane might have played his last game for the GFL club.
Colac co-coach Rowan McSparron says McGuane is weighing up whether he will continue playing in 2022.
McGuane reached the 250game milestone with the Tigers this year, but that could be the final time he is seen in yellow and black.
“I think, with his record, if he tells me in February or the back end of February, the start of March, that he wants to play again, well we’ll try to make that happen,” McSparron said.
“He’s got a young family now and is busy at work, so we’re just giving him a bit of space to think it over.”
McGuane is considered one of Colac’s best-ever players and is widely regarded as a GFL champion.
He nailed a career-high 87 goals in the Tigers’ premiership year of 2014, and ahead of the 2021 campaign, he transformed his body by dropping nearly 20kg.
McSparron said Colac would give McGuane as much time as he needed to make a call.
“Jake’s been a champion of our footy club, let alone the league, and we just want to make sure the decision is right for him and his family,” he said.
“He might want to play in May, and if he does, we’ll be happy. It might take him until the start of August to get back in, but that’s up to him.
“I think … to a certain degree, it’s not our responsibility to be tapping blokes on the shoulder and telling them, especially champions like Jake, when their time’s up or to make a decision.”
Colac has gained two of the league’s biggest signings for 2022, Darcy Lang and Henry Walsh, but McSparron said he did not anticipate any more big-name additions.
Matt Garner and Brendan Monaghan, who have both signed with South Colac, are the only confirmed departures.
McSparron said the perennial contender wanted to continue blooding its kids.
“We want to make sure we’re still trying to develop them and give them opportunities,” he said.
“I think I say every year that we’ve got some really talented kids in the district, that we want to leave some points available for them if they want to come in and try their hand at a better standard of footy.”