AFL mid-season draft: Hawthorn grabs Box Hill Hawk Jai Newcombe

The South Gippsland town of Poowong is celebrating the rise of a home grown kid to Hawthorn’s AFL list. Here’s how he got there.

Jai Newcombe pulling in a mark for Poowong. Pic: George Morgan

The South Gippsland town of Poowong was filled with pride last night after local boy Jai Newcombe “battled his way’’ on to Hawthorn’s AFL list.

The Hawks selected the 19-year-old Box Hill Hawk with the No 2 pick in the AFL mid-season rookie draft, just as Poowong people hoped they would.

Debuting as a 16-year-old, Newcombe played senior football for Poowong in 2018 and ’19 after being overlooked for the Gippsland Power NAB League Boys squad.

The Power listed him as an “over-age’’ 19-year-old player for the 2020 season that never got going because of COVID.

Jai Newcombe on the run for Box Hill Hawks.

Poowong president Ted Attenborough, who coached Newcombe in the Under 18s, said his selection was a “fairytale for our little club and community’’.

“As a footy club and a community, we’re all so very, very proud of him,’’ he said.

“He’s a helluva nice young bloke, a country person at heart. You’ll never hear him skiting about himself. He’s always downplaying what he does and it’s the same with his parents. Great family.’’

Newcombe’s father, Clint, is secretary of Poowong and played more than 300 games for the club.

Attenborough said Newcombe junior had never had it easy, but persisted with a quiet determination.

“They talk about other blokes – and I’m sitting back here watching it now on AFL 360 – but our bloke’s story really is a fairytale story,’’ Attenborough said last night.

“He had his setbacks with the Power. Nothing seemed to go his way up until this year. But we always thought he had the capabilities of going on with his football and I think he did too. He’s always pushed himself to do the best he can.

“He was a very good team player. In the seniors he played across half back usually. He read the ball well. He’s always had very good ball sense, knows where the football is going to be and get there. Attacking player too, with a penetrating kick.’’

Jai Newcombe at Poowong.

Attenborough said he believed it had been beneficial for Newcombe to play senior football against men, and might explain his duck-to-water transition to the VFL with Box Hill Hawks. In 2019 he had been judged Poowong’s most consistent player and was third in the best and fairest.

Newcombe also had a few games with the Under 18s, including in the 2019 grand final.

Recognition came his way: he was named the Ellinbank and District league’s Under 18 captain and took the Arthur Pollard award for claiming the most votes for an Under 18 player in the senior count.

A Gippsland football official who tracked Newcombe’s football listed his strengths as his ability to play a number of positions, his marking and “clean hands … he rarely fumbles’’. He also noted that he was unconcerned “about the physical component of football’’.

The official dropped his named to VFL club Casey Demons, but Newcombe also popped up at Box Hill Hawks for a practice match against Coburg.

The Hawks had selected another Gippy Power player but they needed another number for the scratchie. They rang coach Rhett McLennan, who suggested Newcombe.

He played a half, the Hawks liked what they saw and six months later invited him back for the 2021 preseason.

He made the list. He made the Round 1 team. And he made a good impression on VFL watchers, averaging 23 possessions and seven tackles per game.

Box Hill Hawks coach Sam Mitchell quickly became enamoured with his Gippsland product.

“Probably the best thing that’s ever happened to him – not that I know Sam Mitchell – but just watching Sam talk on the TV and his demeanour … he seems like a real down to earth bloke, like a country bloke coaching football … and I think he’s been very good for Jai,’’ Attenborough said.

“Sam probably identified that Jai’s travelling along the road that he travelled,’’ he added, referring to Mitchell being drafted from Box Hill Hawks.

“He’s given him a real crack in the centre. And Jai’s delivered for him.’’

He said it was “very exciting’’ for a small club like Poowong to have “one of our own battle his way up and get to the AFL’’.

Attenborough said Rudi Mandemaker, who had a run with Hawthorn in the 1980s, was the last Poowong player to join a league club.

Mandemaker later became a prolific goalkicker in the SANFL.