TAC Cup 2019: Jy Bond settling in as Oakleigh Chargers’ talent manager
More than 20 years after he graduated from Oakleigh Chargers, Jy Bond is settling in as the under-18 club’s talent manager.
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In Jy Bond’s office lies a couple of American sporting caps, his Oakleigh Chargers jumper from the mid-1990s and a few team photos hang from the wall.
They tell the story of where he is from, where he has been and what he’s trying to achieve at Warrawee Park Oval.
More than 20 years after he graduated from Oakleigh, Jy Bond is settling in as the under-18 club’s talent manager.
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Bond returned to the club late last year as part of the competition’s shuffle of positions, relocating east after a six-month stint with Western Jets.
The 39-year-old was on spent three years Oakleigh’s list and went to Richmond as a father-son after his father, Graeme, played 115 games with the Tigers, including the 1969 premiership.
He spent time on the supplementary list only for knee injuries to cost him a senior appearance.
From Punt Rd to punting, Bond then took on an American football career.
He was signed by the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants but did not make his NFL debut.
“You’ve either got a job or you don’t … there’s only 32 jobs in the world so it makes it pretty competitive,” Bond said of his time in the States.
“You never really think about it, but there’s 32 jobs and there’s one person who has the job and another who is obviously trying to take that job.”
He returned to Australia and landed a position in the A-League and worked as head of player development for the Socceroos and Matildas national men’s and women’s soccer teams and Melbourne City.
In 2017 he was unveiled as Tasmania’s new state talent manager and took on the role at the Jets last April before replacing Craig Notman at Oakleigh in October.
The club last year equalled the record for the most number of draftees in a season and could have as many as four first-round draft selections in 2019.
“I’ve obviously followed Oakleigh over the years. I’ve always remained in contact with different people at the club, popped back and watched games here and there and always followed their program and success,” he said.
“Now I’m back here and, mate, really proud. They say, ‘once a Charger, always a Charger’ and I’m pretty happy to be back here.”
Bond has also been reunited with coach Leigh Clarke, who came through the program shortly after Bond graduated from the club.
Club stalwarts Jim Honey and Al Morris also remain at the club. He will also work closely with former Oakleigh teammate Luke Power, who is coach of the AFL academy.
“Here has been fantastic for me and I just hope the kids that go through the program, whether they get drafted or they don’t, make good relationships and have a good experience like I had,” he said.
“That’s something that’s really important to me. I look back on kids back then in ‘95, ‘96 and I’m still mates with them. You can make good relationships and I’m almost a 40-year-old man talking about kids I used to hang out with when I was 15.”
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