Kieren Jack’s mum Donna should have known better before sharing family feud on Twitter, writes Rebecca Wilson

THE message was clear from Donna Jack. She felt betrayed by her son Kieran ahead of his 200th game and shared her views on Twitter, but she should have known better.

Kieren Jack and mum Donna.

MY eldest son was a great athlete, a rower who donned the green and gold and proved himself to be an incredible competitor.

He’s 24 now and he retired last year to get what he calls a “real job”.

Tom is much, much wiser than his mother and told me very early on in his career that the best thing I could do for him was to sit in the grandstand, wait for him to come down the course and “shut the *&-! up”.

Sage advice indeed for someone who has always had trouble with that idea. There is a fine line all parents negotiate when their children become successful athletes.

I crossed that line several times throughout Tom’s career and was told to back off in no uncertain terms by a son who just wouldn’t tolerate interference from a meddling mum.

“You can bring the bananas and the sandwiches Mum, but don’t don lycra and peddle down the course like some desperate wannabe coach with no idea,” he told me.

Right. Got that.

Donna Jack obviously hasn’t heeded the same advice from her sons.

This week, she committed what most people would believe is something akin to the familial equivalent of treason by going public on Twitter with her views on her son Kieren’s decision to leave she and husband, league legend, Garry, out of their plans for Jack’s 200th game at Geelong.

The message was clear from Donna. She felt betrayed by both of her football playing sons (the other non-football playing son has sided with them) and she wasn’t going to take the news that Kieren’s girlfriend’s parents were getting her footy tickets and airfares.

Kieren Jack with mum Donna and dad Garry at Sydney’s best-and-fairest in 2010. Picture: Getty Images

In her view, which was excruciatingly public, Donna and Garry should have had the red carpet rolled out considering the sacrifices they’d made for Kieren over the years.

The fact that Garry also chimed in to the Twitter debate proves that he, too, should really know better.

In the meantime, poor Charlotte Goodlet, a girl who is not only beautiful but smart, has had to cop the flak and the fallout from Donna’s words. She has been portrayed as a swimsuit bimbo, when in fact she is a part time model with a serious job at Channel 9.

She is widely respected, well liked and looks to most of us like a great catch. Kieren almost went to the ends of the earth (Perth) to find her and bring her back to Sydney.

In a word, the girl is divine.

She has been painted as the reason Donna is so angry but nobody from the Jack side has told us what exactly it is she is meant to have done, except love her precious son.

In fact, I think it would be safe to say Charlotte has done absolutely nothing wrong except live a life with Kieren, who is, wait for it, 29. Not 19.

He is co-captain of the Swans, a brilliant midfielder and has this week shown why he is the leader of a great footy club. He has been mature in his response to his parents, when most kids would have gone ballistic when they read the tweet and suffered the ensuing fallout.

He wants this to be kept private and you can see he is shattered his mother went to those lengths to intervene.

Keiran Jack and girlfriend Charlotte Goodlet this week. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Still, he kept his thoughts to himself and simply said family matters should stay private. The other great thing he said is that Charlotte is much more than a swimsuit model and he loves her.

There is no doubt the Jacks have tried their hardest with their kids.

When you have three sons and two of them turn out to be brilliant AFL footballers, when there was no Aussie rules anywhere in their bones, you know you’ve done something right.

The Jacks have made incredible sacrifices, like all parents with elite athletes in their homes.

They do the driving from when they are six, they feed them twice as much as normal kids, they pay club fees, physios, they make the excuses when their school marks aren’t as good as they should be.

Then there is the emotional stuff. Try waking up with a kid who has been dropped, injured, disappointed or lost a big game or race.

There comes a time, though, when Mum and Dad are just that.

They aren’t the central forces any more. You grow up, move out and the adult in you makes decisions, runs his own race and starts relying on girlfriends, mates and coaches for the big decisions.

This is a time for good grace, or as my son would more brutally express it, “shut the *&-!, Donna”.

Just hope you grabbed your remote control on Friday night, ordered a pizza and were just damned grateful you had that beautiful boy.