VFL great Ben Jolley will play on in 2020, signing a new deal at Port Melbourne
Jolley will be fronting up for his 16th season in the VFL, extending a career that began at Bendigo Bombers in 2005.
Victorian Football
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Some of the VFL’s longest-serving and most decorated players have called time on their state league careers in the past few weeks.
Luke Tynan. Sam Dunell. Mitch Gent. Nick Meese.
There will be more departures but the great Ben Jolley won’t be one of them.
The 279-game veteran has applied pen to paper and will play on next season at Port Melbourne. He will be 34 by Round 1.
Jolley joined Port Melbourne this year after being cut adrift by Williamstown, where he spent 11 seasons.
He played the first 10 matches and averaged 21.2 possessions, then suffered a season-ending abductor injury.
“I couldn’t have enjoyed my year at Port more, and that’s saying something considering I spent the second half of the year on the sidelines,’’ Jolley said this morning.
“Enjoyment has always been one of my key drivers, along with wanting to compete at the highest level possible.
“I think I still have the ability to compete at VFL level and contribute to the team.’’
Port Melbourne coach Gary Ayres agrees. He met Jolley on Wednesday and they came to terms for 2020.
Jolley said he appreciated the show of faith from Ayres.
“If he’d said, ‘I think you’re done’, we would have shaken hands and parted aways and that might have been it,’’ he said.
“But he said he’d like to see me run around again, that the club wanted me.’’
Jolley said his first season at Port Melbourne was a “positive and a negative’’.
“It was positive in the sense that I showed I could still compete. That was pleasing in the first 10 rounds. I didn’t do myself a disservice in any way, shape or form. On the flip side, when I really felt like I was getting into a bit of a groove I had the injury pop up … bit of a bugger, really,’’ he said.
“Starting at a new club I did one of the biggest pre-seasons I’ve ever done, to make sure I was in tip-top shape. Come Round 1, even though I was feeling in a really good spot, I’d probably overworked. So there was probably a cumulative effect over the first half a dozen rounds. I had a spell, which did me good. Then I got back into it and (in Round 13) as I kicked the ball I was tackled and the tendon popped off the bone, unfortunately. It wasn’t as though I was falling apart. It was one of those things that happen. Matty Arnot did the exact same thing in a practice match.’’
Jolley is a durable product: in 2020 he will be fronting up for his 16th season in the VFL.
He first played in 2005, with Bendigo Bombers as an Essendon player (in 2006 he made four AFL appearances for the Dons).
The midfielder joined Willy in 2008, going on to captain the club from 2012-17 (taking in the 2015 premiership), win four best and fairests and gain seven VFL team-of-the-year jumpers.