Proud dad rides Pie high

CAREER firefighter Andy Howe has been riding the Grand Final wave this week as he prepares to watch son and Collingwood defender Jeremy Howe at the MCG on Saturday.

FROM a small town near Hobart to the biggest stage in the AFL, Collingwood star Jeremy Howe has made an inspirational football journey.

Overlooked in his draft year, the Dodges Ferry junior left the club he’d called home to join Hobart in the Tasmanian State League hoping to impress AFL recruiters.

One strong season at Hob- art was all it took for Melbourne to snap up Howe at pick 33 in the 2010 national draft, but after four years and countless high-flying grabs at the Dees, Howe requested a trade to Collingwood in a move his father Andy says started in the unlikely location of Bali.

“Jeremy and Bucks [Nathan Buckley] were both on separate holidays in Bali and they just sat down and met, firstly as people, and every meeting after that back in Australia was pretty relaxed and they’ve grown that relationship to be quite close friends,” Mr Howe said.

Mr Howe works as a firefighter in Hobart and says the build-up this week has been one of mixed emotions given Jeremy’s mum, Kim, passed away in 2016.

“I’m so happy and thrilled for him. Just because in the last ten years he’s had no real success in football, with no finals experience at AFL level, and then to play finals and get into a grand final is magnificent,” Mr Howe said.

“Last week was the second anniversary of his mum’s death and we had a chat about it leading up to the prelim’ and how she would be super proud of him, and been one of the hardest barrackers there on Saturday.”

Mr Howe still tries to get to as many Dodges Ferry games as he can, and club president Mark Murphy says having Jeremy progress to play on the AFL’s biggest stage shows the club’s juniors what is possible.

“We are all pretty proud that he has made it this far and it’s brought a heap of excitement to the junior side of the club,” Mr Murphy said.

Mr Howe will travel to Melbourne today and will stay with his 28-year-old son in the lead-up to the grand final.

While he will try to keep his excitement as low-key as possible, he will offer up some small advice.

“I’ll just tell him to take the day in and just really enjoy the experience,” Mr Howe said.