Jack Trengove talks about his devastating foot injury and footy’s highs and lows in The Soda Room podcast
He was the youngest captain in VFL/AFL history – but a devastating foot injury sidelined Jack Trengove for three years and became a life turning point. Listen to the podcast.
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An under-18s All Australian and the youngest captain in VFL/AFL history, Jack Trengove faced the toughest period of his life with a devastating injury.
In this edited transcript of the Soda Room podcast he chats with Mark Soderstrom about footy’s highs and lows – and whether he can outrun his sister Jess in the upcoming New York Marathon.
JACK TRENGOVE SPEAKS TO MARK SODERSTROM IN THE SODA ROOM
The Soda Room is presented in collaboration with the Sunday Mail.
Below is an edited transcript of the podcast – listen in full in the player.
Mark Soderstrom: Jack Trengove, it’s so good to have you in here. Now, just trying to work out where we start with you because there’s so much that’s gone on in your world, I might just start with the fact you are preparing to follow in your sister’s footsteps and run the New York Marathon in the next couple of months.
Jack Trengove: I am, It’s always been a bucket list thing for me to do … Preparation isn’t going perfectly to plan because I’m still playing footy. So I can’t really get the kms in the legs. But yeah, hopefully, if we go on to be successful at footy this year can sort of fit in a few runs between now and November.
MS: Your sister Jess (Stenson, Commonwealth Games marathon gold medal winner) told me a time she reckons you might run. What do you reckon it would be?
JT: Well, in my own mind, I’d love to break three hours. My aspiration one day is to go under sort of 2.45, which is under four-minute kms. But I don’t think I’ll be able to at this time, but who knows.
MS: Well, she said if you get through the next couple of weeks of footy OK, and you don’t get banged up in footy too much. She said you’d run to 2.45.
JT: Well there we go. The pressure’s on. You never want to put a time out there because you don’t want to fail, but I’m pretty competitive. So maybe I’ll aim for it then.
MS: Let’s talk about 2009. You’re in year 12. You obviously play for SA, you’re the MVP and All-Australian in the under 18s. In the second half of the year, you’re playing senior footy at Sturt. Within a few months, you get drafted number two and you make your AFL debut within six months. Tell us about that moment when you run out there.
JT: It was absolutely surreal, running out on the ’G in front of 70-odd thousand people against the Hawks. Round 1, all my dreams that sort of come true and quickly. Very quickly and quicker than I could have ever imagined …
I still distinctly remember the first touch I ever got and it was in the first quarter at some stage the ball came my way and it all happened so quickly got a handball away and it probably went straight back to him and I got whacked to the ground I was like, far out this is AFL footy and then Luke Hodge came up tapped me on the arse and said keep going, young fella and I was like, this is real, this is actually happening.
MS: Did you feel like things were happening really quickly. Did it feel like it was all just flowing for you? Like the next great thing is going to come, and then the next great thing and this is just going to be a breeze?
JT: Yeah, well, I guess you mentioned that whole year of my year 12 into my introduction into AFL, things did just happen. No doubt I was working hard and trying hard to achieve those things.
But there weren’t too many negatives along that journey. In that little period of time, like even my junior footy in my first four years at Kyby’ won four premierships. Moved to Adelaide, won a Sturt under-15s premiership. Won a under-17s and reserves premiership in the same year and then went into the grand final the league team the next year, so it’s just success was everywhere and I was like, how good and how easy is this game?
MS: In your first two years in the AFL you pretty much played most games. And then you get a call to captain the Melbourne footy club, I think you were 20 years and 181 days. The youngest captain in VFL/AFL history. What happens when you get told that?
JT: Many things go through your mind. I was just taking on everything as it came and didn’t know any different. So you know, throughout my second year, Dean Bailey got sacked, which was, you know, really sad.
And one of the things that I regret is we allowed a coach like Dean Bailey to be sacked, because I have the utmost respect for him …
The club just made a snap decision to get rid of him and on to the next and then Mark Neeld came on board, and then everything changed. And he wanted to take this club in a new direction. And hence we did the leadership voting that year in the pre-season and my name came out on top.
And when he knocked on the door and said, You’re going to be captain if you’re willing to do it. And I was like … didn’t even know how to react to be honest. But because I take the approach that if that’s what my teammates want, that’s what the club needs, and I’m going for it and I’m gonna do it as best as I possibly can.
MS: Did you know how you were gonna do it? Did you start to look and go right, I’ve got to maybe have potentially some hard conversations with some of these older guys.
JT: Yeah, and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. And that was probably the most daunting thing about it all was the fact that I’m a big one for earning your respect and respecting your elders before you are more experienced and whatnot …
But it’s something I’m grateful that I got exposure to that sort of environment because it’s made me a better person. And I’ve had to grow up very quickly and mature. And yeah, the skills I learned throughout that period has really held me in good stead now.
MS: Do you reckon if you look back as a 31-year old man, if you put that old head on those young shoulders, you reckon at that stage you might have said, ‘You know what, guys? I don’t think I’m ready.’?
JT: Yeah, I think in hindsight now, absolutely. But I’m absolutely grateful that everything happened the way it did, because, as I said, I was so honoured at the oldest footy club in the land to be the captain.
I’m so grateful that I learned so much about myself throughout that period of time. And there’s no doubt that because I got the opportunity to experience that then, I’m now the person that I am now. And I wouldn’t be the person I am now, if I hadn’t been through that.
MS: You guys are getting hidings … mentally did it take a toll? How did you deal with it?
JT: I think that’s the biggest learning out of everything is that I’m a pretty positive and optimistic sort of guy. I think that I can put a positive slant on any situation I’ve been faced with.
But I probably didn’t realise it at the time it was having impacts from a mental point of view. I mean, I’ve always been wanting to just put on a brave face and keep on keeping on.
And, you know, there’s moments now I reflect back and … I remember one night, you know, people talk about having sleepless nights. And I’ve always thought, like, What do you mean? What’s a sleepless night?
But it was literally the night before Mark Neeld got sacked and I couldn’t sleep. And I’ve never had that moment in my life. And that’s purely because I couldn’t switch my brain off. And I was so worried about what the next day was gonna bring that I literally just didn’t sleep that whole night and was just staring at the roof.
MS: In four years, I think you’ve played 79 of 88 games. You’ve seen two coaches get sacked. You’ve had interim coaches with Todd Viney and Neil Craig as well. So did you feel ripped off at that stage that you’ve been drafted to Melbourne?
JT: For me, that’s all I knew. So I couldn’t really compare it. You look at a Joel Selwood who’s been fortunate to go into a successful club and had success his whole life. And there’s no doubt you sort of reflect back and go: ‘Imagine if I got put into a club that had a great support network around it at the time and you went on and do good things and have a successful run’.
But once again, I choose not to reflect and think about what could have been because I’ve made so many great friendships out of my time at Melbourne and cherish those friendships and the relationships.
And, you know, AFL footy and professional sport is an absolute roller coaster, you go through the highs and lows – unfortunately, I probably had more lows than highs – but at the same time you learn so much about yourself. And I stand by the fact I’m a much better and stronger person as a result.
MS: The navicular, a foot injury you had, that started to show its head a little bit, didn’t it during your captaincy?
JT: Unfortunately, (after) I got named as captain and got through my first year I started to feel this little dull pain in my foot. And then in that pre-season it got worse and worse. And we found out there was a little fracture in my navicular … I just sort of kept playing through it and battled through to the end of the season.
I thought I’d get there and then just have some time off in the off-season and it would come good. Unfortunately, that next pre-season, I came back and it cracked right through and I required surgery. So (I had) a couple of pins into the navicular bone, had that whole season off. And then was building up to try to get back from that.
And later realised it cracked through the screws. So had to take the screws out, put some bone marrow and a bone graft in and go through the whole process again.
MS: So essentially you miss more than two years of footy?
JT: It was about three years all up. I’d never really been properly injured for a long time. And then to go from one extreme to the other. It was tough.
MS: What goes through your mind then? How do you deal with that mentally?
JT: Yeah, it’s probably the toughest period of my life for sure. Just because you grow up playing footy and you probably take for granted about being healthy. And then suddenly that’s ripped away from you … My calf had withered away to a bone pretty much, so I had to build up my whole leg again, from a strength point of view. And it was a long road.
But as I said, I learned so much about myself through that time, you talking about resilience, and other things and just set little goals within myself and kept myself in a competitive mindset to make sure that, you know, my ultimate goal was to get back in play at the top level again.
So I was just hell bent and motivated to make sure I got there. It’s the darkest time in my life but it was the greatest thing that ever could have happened to me. And that sounds completely stupid.
MS: There was one point where you were convinced you’re gonna be a Richmond footballer, wasn’t there?
JT: Yeah. Talk about sliding doors moments. It was the off-season. I’d had surgery once and was coming back and rehabbing, I was heading into a new year thinking I’m going to be ready to go for the Dees this year.
And then I got a phone call from the footy manager at that time, who was saying: “Mate, we’ve just got off the phone with (Richmond coach) Dimma Hardwick. He’s pretty keen to have a chat. And I think you should entertain that conversation”.
And I was like, far out like, I’ve given my heart and soul to this place, and suddenly, you’re told to go have a conversation with another club, because we think we might trade you.
MS: This is the team that made you captain at 20.
JT: Yeah. At that moment I took a bit of offence to it, but at the same time, I’m like: this is the industry, right? It is a bit of a meat market. And I understand that because it’s the club’s making the best decision for them at any given point in time.
MS: That’s a mature approach, what you’re saying there, but you’re still a young man when that happens, surely the process isn’t that easy? In between that thought process, it must be like, “Stuff you”?
JT: Yeah. And it gets even more awkward. So I went the next morning to Punt Road and Dimma was there with a few other coaches, and they rolled out the red carpet, you know …
So then I went away that weekend with my girlfriend at the time and it was like: “What am I gonna do?”.
So we drove down to the South-East and met Mum and Dad, they drove down from Adelaide, and sisters and whatnot … And I was driving back to Melbourne I was like: ‘Oh, I’m a Richmond player, it’s done’. I got back to Melbourne and the last thing I had to do is tick off the medical …
They had more scans and I was out on the golf course the next day with a couple of mates and got a call from the Melbourne doctor. He goes mate, you’re gonna have to come in. And I was like, what the hell is happening here? I was thinking I was about to sign with Richmond, and now the Melbourne club doctor is calling. He goes we found some more cracks in the navicular bone. It’s cracked through the screws. So you’re probably gonna have to go for more surgery.
MS: I know your dad had a health issue with cancer. You and him are probably the two most positive people to help navigate your Dad through such a big challenge.
JT: He probably didn’t need the help. He took it all in his stride. It was a tough time for the family because he’s been diagnosed with a pretty serious cancer.
To be dealt that news was pretty confronting at the time. A lot of things go through your mind … suddenly I’m thinking far out, what if Dad’s not here tomorrow?
But Dad’s like: ‘No, this is part of the process, these are the cards I’ve been dealt, I’m going to attack it this way’.
To see him go through what he did and come out the other side … you wouldn’t even know that he’s been through a pretty tough time with cancer and a full dose of heavy chemo that threw him around for 12 months.
But he’s just on with the job and kept working and just wanted to keep attacking life, keep riding his bike, and you know, I sit back and, as our whole family does, so proud of what he’s been able to do.
MS: It’s got to say something about mindset, doesn’t it. It’s got to have some benefit physiologically on your body and recovery and all that.
JT: I’m a big believer in that. Mindset plays a huge role in anything that happens in your life and I’m using him as an example.
Watching him go through chemo was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever seen.
MS: Thank you so much for sharing everything and being so open. It’s been an amazing journey that you’ve travelled so far. And there’s still plenty to go, including 42.195km through New York.
JT: Thanks for having me. I think it’s a great sort of thing you’re doing. You’re getting out and talking to people and that vulnerability thing with not only athletes but people in general is really important. And the more people talk, the better off you’ll be.
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