Tigers rookie Jake Aarts opens up on his journey from Beaconsfield to the AFL

Dynamo forward Jake Aarts has become a vital player for Richmond – but if not for a friend’s sound advice, he may never have reached the big time.

It’s been a long journey for Jake Aarts. Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Jake Aarts would wake up at 5.30 twice in one day.

At 5.30am Aarts would roll out of bed at home in Beaconsfield, drive to bayside and attack a full day on the tools.

The sub-contract carpenter would help turn piles of dirt into double-story townhouses in knockdown-rebuild jobs for a private builder.

Then it was off to Punt Rd for VFL training … via a “stop at the servo” for a Red Bull and a pie, or whatever looked like it would keep him going.

With heavy eyes and about 90 minutes until VFL players were allowed inside, Aarts would find a spot on the grass between Punt Rd and the MCG, recline his car seat and nod off.

“I used to tow a trailer every day, so I’d rock up to the Punt Rd car park and there’s not a hell of a lot of room when all the staff and players are in,” Aarts said.

“So I’d find a little park on the grass with me trailer and I’d just recline the seat until 5.30pm and have a nap.

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Jake Aarts has played every game this season as a small forward who takes his chances in front of goal. Aarts is averaging five score involvements per game while his kick rating is ranked No.15 in the AFL.

“The alarm would go off and then I’d be straight into the club.

“We’d get into pre-season in the 35-degree heat, smash out a session, and then I’d make me way back down the M1 at 9pm at night sitting in roadworks all the way back to ‘Beacy’.

“Me old man would have dinner sitting on the table every night. I’d smash that and go straight to sleep.”

The AFL program finished at 4pm, and often players and coaches would wander out and see Aarts asleep in his car.

It was no one-night stand. This was Aarts’ life for years as he fought to climb on to an AFL list.

With dedication and determination he got there.

Aarts played 82 VFL games before he was rookie-listed by Richmond in 2018 – 49 for the Tigers (2014-18) and 33 for the now-defunct Bendigo Gold (2012-13).

His elevation to senior football came far more swiftly than elevation to the AFL.

At a Thursday night training session, Beaconsfield coach and ex-St Kilda star Aussie Jones whisked the scrawny teenager out of the under-18s and plonked him in the seniors, where he made his debut two days later.

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Jake Aarts weighs 75kg now and there was even less of him at Beaconsfield.

Jones won the VFL coaching job at Bendigo the following season, taking Aarts with him.

Bendigo teammates nicknamed “Smocker”, as in an arts smock.

“I was 17 at the time, didn’t have a car, and I made my way up to Bendigo and spent three months living in a little granny flat out the back at his joint,” Aarts said.

“There wasn’t a hell of a lot to it. There was a bed in there with a TV, and he lived on the back of a train line, so at 3am all you could hear was trains whistling past.”

He chipped away at the Gold and then with the VFL Tigers. But the VFL apprenticeship looked over for him in 2018.

“I did my shoulder in the early part of the season and missed a couple of weeks and my best mates were heading over to Europe,” Aarts said.

“I wasn’t going to get drafted and I actually sort of thought it was done.

“I was about to tell ‘Fly’ (VFL coach Craig McRae) I was having some time off to go travelling.”

Jake Aarts, pictured playing VFL in 2015, kicked 17 goals in the year he was drafted (2018).

But Aarts took a friend’s advice and decided to “hang tough” and finish the VFL season before going globetrotting.

The Tigers tell their AFL players that if you’re playing VFL you need to play “above the level”.

Suddenly, Aarts was playing “above the level”. He was also training like an AFL player without even realising it.

Aarts walked off the track one day to a voice message from an Adelaide recruiter wanting to meet him.

“I came in from training and listened to it and thought, ‘Someone is geeing me up here, someone is taking the p*** out of me’,” Aarts said.

Fremantle and Greater Western Sydney were next to interview Aarts, while Essendon – which tracked him at Bendigo – also showed interest.

But it was Richmond which took Aarts, landing at the club his family had long supported.

Still, when it was tools down and boots on, the hard knocks kept on coming.

In 2019, Aarts’ VFL form deserved AFL selection, but with Shai Bolton, Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna and Dan Butler ahead of him there was simply no room.

Coach Damien Hardwick’s match committee then wanted to pick Aarts … but he was out injured.

Aarts returned in the VFL finals and cleaned up Port Melbourne’s Tommy O’Sullivan in a preliminary final marking contest.

“Got him to the side, I can’t see much of a problem there for Jake Aarts,” Campbell Brown said on commentary.

But O’Sullivan suffered a concussion and fractured cheekbone and the VFL tribunal banned Aarts for four matches.

Beloved VFL coach Craig McRae, who joined Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn this season, gave his premiership medallion to Aarts. McRae has been credited with building the deep sense of connection at Tigerland.

Fellow rookie Marlion Pickett played in VFL and AFL flags inside six days; Aarts played in neither.

“It’s just another part of the story,” Aarts said of his VFL premiership heartbreak.

He’d played 65 VFL games for Richmond across five years and was one of its best players.

McRae couldn’t bear to see his heart-and-soul player miss out, and so the much-loved coach gave his premiership medal to Aarts.

It was a private version of Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge’s famous act with injured captain Bob Murphy after the club’s drought-breaking 2016 premiership.

For Aarts, the challenges in the AFL haven’t been limited to on the field.

Last year, the rookie had his already-skinny salary slashed during the shutdown, which was hard to stomach for a player yet to make his AFL debut.

Presumably, Aarts was clearing less than $1000 per week.

But Aarts sucked it up. He made his debut in front of an empty MCG and then packed his bags for the Gold Coast hub.

Teammates congratulate Jake Aarts ahead of his hard-earned AFL debut last season.

It was there where he found out he was going to be a father, with partner Amelia locked down in Melbourne and pregnant.

“That was a bit of a shock to us,” Aarts, 26, said.

“That was a pretty wild couple of weeks. I got back in November and literally there was two months to go until the birth of our daughter (Ava).

“When challenges come you just work them out. That’s what I’ve done my whole life, I’ve overcome challenges and this was just another one.

“I don’t think there’s anything that would get in our way anymore after what we’ve been through.”

Aarts played every game in the hub until he was dropped after the qualifying final.

For a second year in a row, he watched on as a team he helped power to the finals won a premiership without him.

“It was just another hurdle I’ve had to get over in my journey,” he said.

“A lot of good players do miss out but they obviously work hard over the next pre-season and I feel that’s what I did.

“I just have to do everything I can to make sure it’s not the case this year.”

There’s a template set at Richmond for Aarts to follow.

Jayden Short was an emergency in 2017 and went on to win the 2019 and 2020 flags. Kamdyn McIntosh was an emergency in 2019 and was in last year’s 22.

Three of last year’s grand final emergencies — Aarts, Josh Caddy and Mabior Chol — are all in coach Damien Hardwick’s team. Aarts has hammered home his opportunity this year by playing every game.

Jake Aarts trains at Metricon Stadium during last year’s AFL finals series. He was dropped after the qualifying final.

What’s changed for the small forward who is keeping Daniel Rioli out of the team?

Not much. “I’ve just played a lot of footy,” he said.

“Nearly 100 games of VFL (98), and nearly 30 AFL games (26).”

Hardwick loves Aarts’ workrate.

He runs from contest to contest, he is strong one-on-one, can stand up in a tackle and knock over a goal.

McIntosh’s GPS might show he covers 14km and down the wings, but Aarts said he was a “grunt runner”.

“There’s a few players in our team that are grunt runners, like Jack Graham and Liam Baker,” he said.

“You watch them boys run and they do the same – head down and go.”

It’s not hard to see where the work ethic comes from.

This is the kid who rose before the sun and sweated through six VFL pre-seasons while carrying a nail bag full-time, returning to Punt Rd fitter and stronger every year.

“It is a strength of mine, my running, but it’s not naturally gifted,” Aarts said.

“I’ve got to work hard to keep my fitness up. I’m not one of those blokes who can come into the off-season off no running and smash out some time trials, I do need to do the work.

“But if I can get to the end of the quarters and I’m still running hard I feel like it’s an advantage I’ve got against some opposition.

“If I can get to the last quarter and I’ve still got a bit left in the tank I can keep going a bit harder.

“I love the hard work and when you’ve got good workrate late in a game it puts me in a good position.”