Two years after working as a teacher, Jarrod Lienert fulfils his AFL ambition
TWO years since walking away from a teaching placement minutes after learning he was drafted, “starstruck’’ mature-age player Jarrod Lienert has spoken about the significance of his first AFL game for Port Adelaide.
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TWO years after walking away from a teaching placement minutes after he was drafted, a “starstruck’’ Jarrod Lienert has described his AFL debut as an “absolute dream come true’'.
While Lienert didn’t get the first-up win he craved when GWS upset Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, Lienert’s long and winding road to reach the top came to fruition when he played his first AFL game two weeks before his 24th birthday.
While he was unable to sing the club song for the first time and be showered in Gatorade as the Power fell to a damaging 22-point defeat, Lienert showed why Port had punted on the mature-age prospect with a strong and composed display.
Starting on the bench before taking up a position in defence six minutes into the opening term, the 193cm Lienert finished with 20 disposals, five marks and 92 SuperCoach points — the fifth-highest recorded at the Power.
Most importantly, he looked at home.
“Obviously the result was disappointing — we had a really good crack but didn’t execute well enough — but from a personal point of view it was an absolute dream come true,’’ Lienert told The Advertiser.
“I had a smile on my face for most of the game — probably until the final siren — just thinking this is unbelievable because I’ve wanted it for so long.
“There were a few years there where I didn’t think it was possible, so to get to this point means a lot to me.’’
Lienert, from Murray Bridge’s Imperials club — the home of Port’s dual All-Australian forward/midfielder Chad Wingard who he played junior football and basketball with — had struggled for a regular league game at Sturt before former Crow and Swan Martin Mattner became coach at the end of 2015.
“Marty gave me the opportunity to play,’’ said Lienert, whose dad Brett played 134 games for the Double Blues from 1987-94.
“He came in and said this is your year, you’re going to play (regular) league footy because you’ve got attributes that can help our team.
“He gave me the belief first and then the opportunity to do something with my football, which is what I wanted.’’
Mattner took Sturt from eighth to first in his first season and Lienert caught the Power’s eye by starring on a wing and as a back-up ruckman.
He learned of his drafting — at pick 42 at the 2017 rookie draft — while he was on his second placement at Tyndale Christian School at Murray Bridge.
“That was pretty cool because I wasn’t really expecting to get drafted,’’ said Lienert, who had studied teaching for four years at Flinders University.
“So I pretty much dropped everything else and was at Port training the next day. I’d had a few years in the real world working and going to university so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and just wanted to give it everything I had.
“I always said to myself that when football ends I want to look back and be able to say I did everything I could to make it at the highest level.’’
Lienert, who undertakes one study class a week to complete his teaching degree, spent last year in the SANFL learning to play in defence where the Power viewed his athleticism and long kicking as a weapon.
He played in the Magpies’ heartbreaking one-point grand final loss to Sturt — “that was really weird,’’ Lienert said — and has been mentored by Port’s best defender Tom Jonas, the brother of his 2016 premiership teammate and “really good mate'’ Sam Jonas.
Lienert made his AFL debut just a month after returning from two months out following arthroscopic knee surgery.
“I thought I played okay first-up,’’ he said, admitting to stargazing at Giants guns Josh Kelly, Dylan Shiel and Callan Ward.
“I was just trying to be tough and composed. Now I've just got to build on it.’’
andrew.capel@news.com.au
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