EFL: Former Fremantle teammates Jess Sinclair and Heath Black return to grassroots after AFL careers

THEIR AFL careers have criss-crossed across the country for more than 20 years, now great mates Jess Sinclair and Heath Black’s journeys have intersected in suburban coaching ranks.

Jess Sinclair and Heath Black compete for the ball.

THEIR careers have criss-crossed across the country for more than two decades as teammates and opponents.

Now 21 years after their AFL debuts, Jess Sinclair and Heath Black find themselves in opposite camps competing for the more humble prize of an Eastern Football League Division 2 premiership.

Both were recruited to Fremantle in 1996 from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and won Rising Star nominations before returning to the east coast (Sinclair to North Melbourne and Black to St Kilda before finishing his career back at Fremantle) in the early 2000s.

RELATED: Jess Sinclair appointed new Wantirna South coach in the Eastern Football League

RELATED: Heath Black signs on as Mooroolbark coach in the Eastern Football League

Remarkably, both finished on 192 career games after calling time on their careers at the elite level in 2008.

On Saturday, their football journeys will again intersect at Walker Reserve where they will meet as opposition coaches. Sinclair at the helm of Wantirna South and Black controlling the magnets at Mooroolbark.

“It’s going to be a bit of blockbuster, isn’t it?” Sinclair quipped.

Mooroolbark coach Heath Black. Picture: Supplied

Wantirna South coach Jess Sinclair. Picture: Supplied

“I’m trying to get as much info out of him as I can about Mooroolbark and he’s doing the same with me but we’re probably just bluffing each other with our stories.”

The pair lived together when they first moved to Western Australia but their football journeys stretch back further than their AFL days — both represented the under-12 Victorian state schoolboys team in the early 1990s before going on to the TAC Cup.

Both played as wingmen for Vic Metro in the under-18 national championships and were named in the All Australian team.

“I remember during that carnival we used to swap wings and try and get each other into the game,” Sinclair recalled.

The duo moved in with Matthew ‘Spider’ Burton’s mother in their first year in WA before shifting into a two-bedroom unit in Scarborough opposite the beach.

“We used to get up to all sorts of mischief up there so it was good times,” Sinclair said.

“We thought we had the balance right between footy and our social lives but that probably wasn’t the case looking back.”

Black recalls who was always left to do the chores around the house.

“I can say I was the one that taught him how to vacuum, the only thing he could cook was baked beans on toast — I was actually his mother,” Black said.

“He never knew how to pay a Telstra bill, I used to pay his bills and funnily enough I was doing some work with Holden selling some cars and sold him his first couple of cars.

Jess Sinclair and Heath Black tangle with Eagle Michael Braun in 1999.

“His first car, it was a chicks car — a Suzuki aqua colour and he had the blonde hair so he looked the part.

“Back then in ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, gee we had an amazing amount of fun.”

The pair are now back in the suburban ranks, at the helm of their respective clubs trying to push them into the top tier of the EFL.

“We’re definitely going to help each other, there is no doubt, when we are playing opposition teams,” Black said.

“It’s going to work well, he is a ripping coach, he is old school and he won’t tolerate mediocrity.”

Sinclair said the two would remain friends for a long time to come.

“I guess it’s good to get back to our roots and give it a crack in the Eastern footy league, which is obviously a ripping football league,” he said.

“We’re both really excited about the year ahead and just can’t wait to see how it pans out.”