Hamish McLachlan chats with Jarryd Roughead about first loves, basketball, a cancer scare and more

IN an interview with Hamish McLachlan a month ago, Jarryd Roughead revealed the emotional moment he first learned "a blister" on his lip was something more sinister. Read the interview in full

Jarryd Roughead training at Waverley Park. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

JARRYD Roughead is a humble country kid from Leongatha. He is a four-time Premiership Hawk.

If he was anymore laid back, he’d be lying down. We spoke about first loves, best man speeches, basketball, a cancer scare and post-Grand Final gatherings at his house.

HM: Basketball was your go as a kid, wasn’t it? A talented player?

JR: I loved basketball, I was pretty obsessed. From 1998 to 2002 it was my no.1 priority. I played for some representative sides — Leongatha, Vic Country and, in the end, it was Dandenong on Friday nights.

HM: Any interest early in football?

JR: Some, but not a lot. I only played really because my mates played. You’re a country kid, you know what it’s like in the country: tennis, mixed netball, cricket, basketball, footy, a real mixed bag.

HM: How good were you at mixed netball?

JR: Centre. Pretty dominant (laughing).

HM: You’re an NBA tragic — and an NBA singlet collector?

JR: I had about 40, but I actually got rid of them not too long ago — I put them on eBay — but I’ve got a lot of shoes and ASICS sneakers still. Too many, maybe 50 pairs.

HM: Seems a lot for a bloke with only two feet. You named your dog after a basketballer?

JR: I did, named her Melo after Carmelo Anthony.

HM: Jordan would be disappointed.

JR: Michael Jordan, he was my hero. He still is, actually.

HM: His was probably the best and shortest press conference in the world when he “un-retired”. Just a couple of words, from memory: “I’m back.”

JR: The Bulls ticket sales went through the roof after those two words. I liked Bill Clinton’s comment around it, something like: “The economy has produced six million jobs since I became President, and if Michael Jordan comes back to the Bulls, it will be six million and one.”

HM: Clever, Bill, clever. How did you end up migrating to football?

JR: I had a deal with my old man. He said if I quit basketball, and played footy, he would coach me. When I was playing basketball at Dandenong, we were doing nine hours a week in the car to get to the games and training. It was his way of cutting the hours down. At the time, you don’t realise how much your parents do for you. It’s remarkable, really.

HM: So you gave up basketball at 16 to play footy, under your dad, but you playing under him didn’t last long.

JR: No, the former 200-game Swan, Andrew Dunkley, had other ideas. He was the seniors coach at Leongatha. He’d seen me in preseason and told me I should be playing seniors. I thought he was kidding as I didn’t think I was a standout at all, and really didn’t know what I was doing — I was just playing footy with my mates. Suddenly I was playing seniors, like my old man used to. He played ruck.

HM: What street is the Leongatha football ground on?

JR: Roughead St; it’s named after my great-grandfather, George.

HM: Is it true that the town has had trouble keeping the street signs in place?

JR: I’ve heard that … they keep going missing (laughing). I may, or may not, have one at home, and when we finish the renovations, it may get placed somewhere cool. When you first come into town, there’s a pole full of street signs, five in a row at the top, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, a bit of a gap and then two more at the bottom.

HM: How good a cricketer where you?

JR: Not that good.

HM: Pretty modest for a man who hit Brett Lee for six. How fast was he bowling?

JR: Let’s go with 160km/h! It was in Ricky Ponting’s Testimonial match a couple of years ago, down in Launceston. I was sh---ing myself, as I kept being told Brett Lee is unable to bowl slowly. I watched him bowl two overs early in the innings, and Adam Gilchrist and Greg Blewett were in batting, and it was ridiculous how quick he was. I was batting at about 4 or 5, and when I came in to bat, Ricky Ponting told Brett to start warming up.
I said to him, “No, don’t do that!” The first couple of balls, I hardly saw them. First up, he bowled a bouncer outside off stump, which wouldn’t have hit me, but it scared the absolute sh-- out of me. Second up, he bowled a yorker that I somehow got a bit of bat on. The last ball of the over, I just swung, eyes closed, and the bat connected, and it went over cover for six! I was that happy I gave him a high-five!

HM: Well done on your recent marriage. You married your first love?

JR: Yep, Sarah Dunn, my first love, first girlfriend. I met her at the Inverloch Pub on New Year’s 2008 going into 2009. I knew of Sarah growing up, and I would see her at basketball tournaments. She’s a couple of years younger than me, and she went to school over on Phillip Island. She went to private school, I was public. Sarah did a gap year after school, and when she came back from it, that’s when I met her. We haven’t been apart since. April 17 will be seven years.

HM: What was the highlight of your wedding day?

JR: I think it was looking around and seeing everyone in your life that had played key roles, those who’d made you laugh, who had helped you in dark times and been a big part of shaping your life, all there, in one room.

HM: Any tears from you?

JR: No. I didn’t cry, I’m a bit of an iceman, I guess, in that sense. I can remember Sarah walking down the aisle towards me; I might have got close then, but no actual tears.

HM: Who was your best man and how was his speech?

JR: Jordan Lewis, and he was surprisingly good. I was his best man about 14 months prior.
I was so nervous doing his speech, but I nailed it! Jordy nailed his too. He got us both up with him, and got us standing back to back and playing a game where we had to pass a shoe around. He did a very good job and spoke very, very well.

HM: How was yours?

JR: Off the cuff, dot points, rock solid.

HM: And Sarah?

JR: Sars didn’t speak. She was emotional throughout the day, vows and whatnot. She’s not a fan of public speaking, she would have got too emotional.

HM: I’m six years into my marriage and still learning daily. You’re about 10 weeks. What’s the key to marriage, do you think?

JR: Listening. That’s the big one, I think, and I’m still learning to master it. I think it is also important to allow each other to be independent, and to support each other as we each chase our own dreams.

HM: My wife gets angriest at me around the listening thing. Do you want a big family?

JR: I do. I would have had kids years ago if it was just my choice.

HM: What is the best value you could instil in your children?

JR: Respect and manners. I hated my parents saying that, but it was the best thing they ever told me. My parents would always say: “Respect and manners, respect and manners”. Dad is the sort of bloke who wouldn’t let us hide behind his legs when meeting people; he would get you to shake their hand and say hello. I still call all my old teachers “Mr or Mrs” even though I know their first names.

HM: Good values. When did you find out your posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) was needing an op?

JR: The morning before the wedding. On the Thursday, I’d been told that it was no good, and I went and saw the surgeon on the Friday morning, and he said it was op time.

HM: Did it affect the bridal waltz?

JR: Yep, a little, but not too badly. I was still bloody good. It wasn’t as if we had choreographed something with twists and turns, so I wasn’t planning on breaking into the worm or anything like that, but I managed to do what I needed to do. I freestyled, and gave the fans what they wanted to see.

HM: Recovery from the surgery?

JR: So far it’s all going well and on track.

HM: If all goes well, when will you be playing?

JR: This year, hopefully! I learnt with my Achilles that you don’t put a date on it.

HM: You had a big scare last year. Do you know how you ended up with a cancerous melanoma on your lip?

JR: No. Looking back on it, there had been a blister on my lip for five months or so, but I didn’t think anything of it. I’m very good when it comes to the sun — I have to be as I am so fair skinned, I can get burnt in the cinema!

HM: So the only sign you had was a mark on your lip wouldn’t go away, so you thought you’d better get it checked out?

JR: The dermatologist had told me in the past that if ever I had something that wouldn’t stop bleeding when I knocked it, to come back. It had been bleeding a bit. I went and saw him. They looked at it, and told me it was a cavum vergae cyst. There are three sorts and melanoma is the worst. After playing that week against Essendon, I got a call from the dermatologist who told me it was a melanoma. I called the club doctor, and he told me to come in immediately. I asked him what the plan was — I was assuming we would do it at the end of the footy season. He told me he’d already booked a plastic surgeon and that we’d be having to get it taken out straight away. The next morning they put in two needles either side of it, which had radioactive ink in them so they could see where the melanoma ran to. They cut it out that afternoon, and cut it to where it had drained to. They need to make sure the lymph nodes aren’t affected — if that happens you’re in serious trouble. I had to wait for about a week to find out if it had spread or not.

HM: How was the week?

JR: I did a lot of thinking. I knew not to go looking at Google and hunting out worst-case scenarios, but Sarah and my mates did that! They were calling me and saying it could be this, it could be that. I told them that I would deal with that scenario when and if it happened. My bottom lip was 12cm long before they cut it out, and now it is nine. They had to go about 1.5cm down my chin as well, so about 12 stitches in the end.

HM: Painful op?

JR: I’m told there are three places you never want to get a needle: your lip, your fingertips and your old fella. The doctor did a punch biopsy and Christ it hurt.

HM: It was an emotional week.

JR: The day after I had been contemplating my potential fate and had the surgery done, Phil Walsh died. That was heavy. It was as heavy a week as I’d been involved in. I missed that Friday night game when everyone linked arms, but travelled to Tassie the next week. The doc had said that if someone pulled out, he’d OK me to play, as he’d seen the results and knew that
I was clear.

HM: How was the relief when the doc told you it was all clear?

JR: Significant, but I hadn’t got so caught up in it that it overtook everything. Naively, probably. I think I thought I was fine because I wasn’t feeling injured or sick — I just had this thing on my lip that was being cut out. I probably overlooked the seriousness.

HM: Does it play on your mind now?

JR: It does when I go to see the specialists. I have to go in about every four months over the next two years. I have to have a PET scan and an MRI every six months. I’ll have to do that stuff for the rest of my life, but I have no problem with that. I get PET scans done at the Peter MacCallum Centre, and when I see some of the people in there, I realise how lucky I am. It is a real eye-opener at Peter Mac to see how bad it can get, and what your life can become if you’re not really careful, or just bloody unlucky. Peter Mac isn’t a place you want to be because you chose not to wear sunscreen and protect yourself from the sun.

HM: What’s the best part about being in a footy club?

JR: It is an extended family, a great extended family. You can be having a sh-- day, but generally someone at the club senses it, picks up on it, and puts their arms around you. You can talk to anyone at the club, whether it be the property steward or the CEO. Just talk to them, as if you were sitting at a bar having a beer, and work life out.

HM: A member of that family, Buddy Franklin, left and has had some issues. How do you try to help?

JR: You don’t need to be the answer to him, but you’re a mate so you offer whatever support you can, and you try to become someone to lean on. I saw him on my birthday in January. He was really happy, it was just the best thing to see. The next week he was in my wedding party. He seems to be in a good spot.

HM: The second-most famous lefty from Leongatha is Dyson Heppell. It must be an extraordinarily tough time for him. Do you reach out in some way?

JR: We had dinner the other night, actually. I went on the international rules tour with him. At one stage, there we were, half a world away from our own little town of Leongatha: I was playing ruck, and he was rover, , and I said to him, “How bloody good is this — us, here, representing our country!” He’ll win a Brownlow one day. He will be OK.

HM: A champion footballer now. What do you want to do when you grow up?

JR: As a kid I would have said I’d like to be a fire truck, as I was a Transformer back in the day.
I did a landscaping course, which I really enjoyed, but when your body gets a bit older in football, that can be pretty tough. Who knows, I might stick around in football. I like list management, I quite like where it’s going with free agency and trading for future picks.

HM: NFL players celebrate the day after a Super Bowl at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. The Hawks celebrate at yours. Is yours a happy place?

JR: I like to think so! That tradition started in 2012. Twenty of the 22 made it this year. Junior (Cyril Rioli) went too hard and Paul Puopolo had a family event and couldn’t get there. Having everyone round the morning after, where it’s just the players, is great. We sit in the back yard and enjoy a few beverages and reminisce before heading to the club function.

HM: One of your teammates described you as “a bloody good footballer, but an even better person”. How would you describe yourself?

JR: I’d like to think I haven’t changed much since I left home. I’m a footballer and not an athlete. I can’t run very well, and I’m not that quick, but I can play footy. I would have loved to played in the ’80s; I think I would have fitted into that mould a lot easier. And I hope they say I have respect and manners — that’s what life is all about.