Sydney’s Kieren Jack opens up on the turmoil that surrounded his 200th game as he prepares for No.250

As he prepares for his 250th game, Sydney veteran Kieren Jack has opened up on the emotional turmoil that surrounded his last AFL milestone, which teammates have hailed the signature performance of his career.

Kieren Jack reflects on the tough week around his last milestone.

Kieren Jack has opened up on the emotional turmoil that surrounded his last AFL milestone, which teammates have hailed the signature performance of his remarkable Sydney Swans career.

Jack runs out for his 250th match today against Richmond, an unobstructed week of tributes a world away from the pain he took into his 200th game back in 2016, which came in the immediate wake of a traumatic and very public split from his parents, Donna and rugby league great, Garry.

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Kieren Jack playing his 200th game for the Sydney Swans at Geelong. Kieren after the siren. Picture: Jay Town

Sydney pulled off a famous victory that Friday night in Geelong with Jack producing an inspirational best-on-ground performance, described by teammates Jarrad McVeigh and Callum Sinclair as the match that best sums up the character of one of the most influential figures in the history of the Swans.

In a wide-ranging and stark interview with Sinclair on a Sydney Swans podcast this week, Jack laid bare the emotional roller coaster he went on that week with now wife, Charlotte Goodlet and younger brother Brandon following a sad estrangement from his parents that appears yet to heal.

“Yeah it was a s**t week to state the obvious,” Jack told Sinclair, who told his former captain, “no one should have had to deal with what you dealt with.”

“ … It was a week that tested me, tested Charlotte tested Brandon as well,” said Jack.

“But I think it also highlighted how good football clubs can be.

Kieren Jack gets a hug from partner Charlotte Goodlet after his 200th game. Picture: Jay Town

“ … Everything blew up … but you guys (teammates) and Horse (coach John Longmire) were just incredible in support.

“Macca gave me my jumper and there was a bit of a video that got played, I had Brandon sitting next to me, it was the most emotional I’ve been prior to a game and there were a couple of tears at one point.

“I was emotionally driven and really emotionally invested in it and the boys were too.

“Joey (Josh Kennedy) came up to me before the game and said, ‘don’t worry, mate, ‘we’ll win this for you.’

“The game was incredible … the footy Gods, maybe they were on my side that night.”

Sinclair described Jack as ferocious that night. Jack’s co-captain McVeigh gave a stirring pre-match speech that Jack says he will never forget.

The night is also etched permanently into McVeigh’s summation a true giant of the Swans.

Kieren Jack is a familiar fixture at the SCG. Picture: Phil Hilyard

“The way he carried himself that night and the way he played was something really amazing to see,” said McVeigh.

McVeigh has also never forgotten how much it meant to Jack when Longmire made the two boys from Pennant Hills captains together.

Jack was a captain not afraid to have the tough conversations with teammates, but the first to wrap his arm around his ‘brothers’.

“I was fortunate enough to be in a room when Horse told him we were going to be teaming up to be captains. I was ecstatic for him and to see his face and the smile was a really special moment to see,” McVeigh said.

“He had difficult conversations with all our players, including me, but the next day there’d be a follow up to get around you and talk through it on a personal level.

“The way he plays on the field is one area, but off the field he’s very caring to others and he does things that are best for the team, not himself.”

Kieren Jack played his first game of the season against Melbourne last week. Picture: AAP

Swans legend Paul Kelly has said that even as the club rose in popularity through the second half of the 1990s, seeing a kid kicking a footy in a park was like spotting a UFO.

But over the span of Jack’s 14-year career, the game has grown exponentially in NSW to the point that Aussie rules participation is starting to dominate in pockets of Sydney formerly dominated by rugby league.

Jack could barely kick a ball when he arrived at the Swans back in 2007, so strong were his rugby league tendencies to go around the corner.

In team meetings under Paul Roos, references to AFL legends would often go over Jack’s head and on at least one occasion he had never heard of the superstar he was to match-up on that weekend.

Even now, Jack is still savouring winning his NRL Supercoach competition last year.

All these years later, the coach who taught Jack to kick, former North Melbourne premiership winner Brett Allison, says few have blazed a trail for the game more in a non-traditional market than Kieren Jack.

“I think Kieren, Jarrad McVeigh and Lewis Roberts Thomson (all NSW born and raised) allowed a lot of NSW youngsters to see that there is a career path here for AFL football,” said Allison.

“If these blokes are making it then why can’t we?

“To have the profile that his family had in the biggest sport in the State. It certainly drew a fair bit of attention to him.

“He helped inspire the city to get into (football).”

Originally published as Sydney’s Kieren Jack opens up on the turmoil that surrounded his 200th game as he prepares for No.250