‘It’s pretty overwhelming, it’s all happened so quick’: Jarrod Lienert surprised by AFL draft selection
JARROD Lienert’s rapid rise to an AFL list has surprised no one more than himself — he was just hoping for a run at Sturt. Instead, he’s been picked up by Port Adelaide in the AFL rookie draft.
JARROD Lienert’s rapid rise to an AFL list has surprised no one more than himself.
His sole aim heading into this year was to cement a spot in Sturt’s league team after spending most of the previous season in the reserves.
Lienert did more than that, missing just one minor round game in the Double Blues’ premiership campaign.
Two months on, he was picked by Port Adelaide with its final selection in last week’s AFL rookie draft.
“It’s pretty overwhelming, it’s all happened so quick,” Lienert, 22, says.
“I wasn’t really expecting it too much at all.
“I’d been dreaming about playing AFL for ages, but I thought it had eluded me for a couple of years there.
“I was playing reserves and I didn’t really think about AFL at all.
“Once I cracked a league game in 2015, I was in and out a bit that year, but ... as this year progressed getting rookie drafted was the aim.”
Lienert, whose father is former Sturt ruckman Brett Lienert, is studying teaching and was on placement at a school in Murray Bridge – where he grew up – when he was drafted.
“I watched the rookie draft with my mentor teacher on my phone and when I got picked up, I was straight out of there,” says Lienert, who is recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his knee.
At 195cm and 98kg, Lienert describes himself as a utility, after playing as a midfielder, a forward, a backman and a ruckman at some point this past season.
He credits Double Blues premiership coach Marty Mattner for his dramatic improvement over the past year.
“He (Mattner) had faith in the players and in particularly myself who hadn’t had that faith in the past.”