We didn’t see a lot of Jordy before Christmas because he was still getting over glandular fever, but as soon as he came into the club after he was drafted he had that cheeky smile and the right attitude.
Coming across from Western Australia he was just eager to get amongst the boys and learn as much as he could, and he really took everything as it came.
As we’ve seen on the footy field this season, Jordy’s a bit of a freak of nature. He hasn’t had a full football pre-season as yet, because he’s focussed a lot of his attention on cricket which leaves him with plenty of room for growth.
He’s not afraid to make a mistake and as a young player coming in that’s probably the one thing that stood out for me that he had that confidence to keep backing it up even if he made an error.
As soon as he got on the training track after Christmas, you could tell he had that line-breaking dash and that he really backs his leg in. He’s quite a good aerobic runner as well so the more time he spends playing AFL football he’ll learn to use that in a much better capacity.
I got on well with Jordy from pretty early on so I was absolutely stoked for him when he was nominated for the Rising Star. I gave him a big hug. He’s not that much of an affectionate type, but I wrapped my arms around him and said that I was super proud of him. He’s played some awesome footy this year without getting the external recognition to this point of the year. To see him getting that feather in his cap was a great moment for him.
He’s a ripping kid and I don’t have a single bad thing to say about him.
Jordy loves to have a laugh and he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is a really good attribute to have in AFL footy.
We love our cricket down at Geelong and (former Cat) George Horlin-Smith was a long-time holder of the title of best cricketer at the club.
But now that he’s at Gold Coast and Jordy has come in, I would have thought that Clarky’s clearly No.1 now. Taking a hat-trick against Pakistan while playing for Australia at under-16 level pretty much guarantees that!
We were playing some backyard cricket at Mark Blicavs’ place in November last year and Jordy came on to bowl to Harry Taylor.
I just remember ‘Clarky’ fizzing one (a delivery) down the pitch and it took out off-stump on his first ball and we were like, ‘Hang on, this kid can seriously play.’
He had that little smirk and that air of confidence which we often see on the footy field as well.
Jordy is also an incredible sleeper. Not too much fazes him. A lot of boys after a night game struggle to sleep because they’ve got that adrenalin pumping, but Jordy will go home and sleep for 13 hours. I don’t know how he does it!
We’ve seen the flashes of brilliance from Jordy in his first year and he’ll be a vital contributor for us later in the year.
I have no doubt he’s going to be a really important player for the Geelong Football Club for many years to come.
With his demeanour and the attributes he has off-field as well, he could be a really good leader for this club in the future.
I wish him the very best for the future because he’s a really good kid and I can’t wait to watch him develop over his career.
AFL RISING STAR NOMINEES IN 2019
Round 2 — Charlie Constable (Geelong)
Round 3 — Connor Rozee (Port Adelaide)
Round 5 — Jack Petruccelle (West Coast)
Round 6 — Xavier Duursma (Port Adelaide)
Round 7 — Cameron Zurhaar (NMFC)
Round 8 — Gryan Miers (Geelong)
Round 9 — Bailey Smith (Western Bulldogs)
Round 10 – Liam Baker (Richmond)
Round 11 – Sydney Stack (Richmond)
Round 12 – Tarryn Thomas (North Melbourne)
Round 13 – Dylan Clarke (Essendon)
Round 14 – Nick Blakey (Sydney)
Round 15 – Jordan Clark (Geelong)