AFL Rising Star round six nominee: Story behind Jack Ginnivan’s blond hair after Anzac Day emergence
Emergent Pie firebrand Jack Ginnivan has been compared to former Fremantle agitator Hayden Ballantyne. Here’s why the “annoying” teen says that’s off the mark.
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There was not a lot of thought put into Jack Ginnivan’s change of hairdo.
The day after a Round 2 win over Adelaide, Ginnivan was hanging out with Collingwood teammates Trent Bianco, Callum Brown and Tyler Brown when he decided to make a trip to his local Woolworths and pick up a packet of blond hair dye.
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“It was a spontaneous thing,” Ginnivan told News Corp.
“It was a Sunday and we were bored and we thought, ‘What can we do?’”
Callum Brown assisted in turning Ginnivan’s long brown hair into flowing long blond locks.
But after a quick look in the mirror, a pair of kitchen scissors came out.
“It was long blond but it looked terrible so I had to cut it,” Ginnivan said.
“I needed to get it cut anyway and then I just thought, ‘I could go blond for a bit’.
“It’s been long brown since about Year 8, so it’s a bit of a change.”
The spontaneous change of hair colour is a reflection of how comfortable Ginnivan is in his own skin.
Criticism of the Magpies’ forward for taking hold of a GoPro camera to film post-match celebrations after a Round 1 win over St Kilda was similarly water off a duck’s back.
“You go on your phone and I remember waking up and all this stuff came out and you just think, ‘What’s going on here?’” Ginnivan said.
“But it didn’t affect me that much. I was just with my mates out there and it was a bit of fun. Some people obviously take it the wrong way.”
There was far more praise than criticism for Ginnivan after a five-goal performance against Essendon on Monday, which earned him the prestigious Anzac Day Medal as best on ground as well as the Round 6 NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.
Twenty-four hours post-game, the 19-year-old said that the medal had been “locked on my neck” ever since.
However, the achievement did not change much about his day off on Tuesday.
After going into the club to do some recovery, he headed to West Melbourne in search of some new additions for his growing basketball card collection.
“I went and bought a box of basketball cards,” Ginnivan said.
“I’m still working on my collection. Some of my mates are way more invested than me.”
Ginnivan’s favourite card is of Alonzo Mourning, who was a centre for the Charlotte Hornets in the 1990s.
Mourning wore the same No.33 on his back as Ginnivan wears for the Magpies.
Ginnivan also played basketball in his younger years and went about it in a similar way to how he plays his football.
“I always went and defended the best player and just annoyed them,” he said.
“I was a bit like Pat Beverley from Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s what I used to do, just get under people’s skin. That’s me.”
When Ginnivan was 11 he kicked 101 goals for Newstead in the Maryborough Castlemaine District League.
His best effort was 15 in a half against Dunolly, before an interesting change at half-time.
I kicked 15 against Dunolly in a half and then dad made me play for Dunolly in the second half, Ginnivan said on AFL 360.
Ginnivan also revealed he still bases his kicking action on Hawthorn star Luke Bruest after making the change two years ago.
“I don’t know if he has changed it but my drop punt is three rocks and three spins of the ball and then a big deep breath and shoot for goal,” he said.
Ginnivan thinks comparisons between him and former Fremantle small forward Hayden Ballantyne are a little off the mark and says he is no sledger out on the field.
“I wouldn’t say I’m that extreme or go to that length yet,” Ginnivan said when asked about the Ballantyne comparison.
“I’m not someone who chirps up and says stuff, but being annoying and getting in my opponent’s face is how I go about it.”
Ginnivan worked hard on his fitness and overhead marking across the summer and that work is now paying off, with the Castlemaine product having kicked goals in all five of his games this year.
Ginnivan hopes to kick many more goals at AFL level before achieving his other goal of becoming a police officer when his football days are over.
“Hopefully that’s not for a little while, but I love the law,” he said.
“I’ve always watched a lot of crime shows.”
Robbo: Footy’s new Aker arrives on biggest stage
—Mark Robinson
Not sure what the Anzacs would make of the boy named Jack from Castlemaine and his bleach blond hair.
They’d like his footy and his spunky presence, no doubt, and his ability to deliver on footy’s most precious day says plenty about his character for the occasion.
But the hair?
Not that Jack Ginnivan would be too fazed.
He is not one to be weighed down by what other people think.
“I’m just trying to be myself out there and lucky enough today that I had a good game,” he said post-match.
“I’ve had it (confidence) since I was a young kid. I love being competitive and I love when people doubt me.
“It gives me the edge to go out and show them what I’ve got. That’s how I deal with it.”
Ginnivan delivered another wonderful football story on Anzac Day.
The boy’s just 19 and in another world at another time, he probably wouldn’t have been be at the MCG, instead on a battlefield far, far away.
On the biggest stage kicked five goals in the 15.3 (93) to 12.10 (82) win. The last Collingwood player to do that on Anzac Day was Paul Medhurst. He, too, won the medal for best on ground.
Ginnivan is a breath of fresh air.
He’s a rookie draft selection from 2020 and now an Anzac Day medallist.
He set the match alight early — after what was a staggeringly moving acknowledgment of the Anzacs in the pre-match — by kicking the first goal of the game.
Not overawed by the occasion, he led and marked in the forward pocket when no one else was making an option and, despite the nerves coursing through his veins, he casually kicked around the body and nailed the goal.
Not only did the young man make plays, he understood the importance of that first kick.
“I’ve watched a few (Anzac games). I remember when Paul Seedsman won — he was one of my favourite players, so that was pretty cool,” Ginnivan said of winning the medal.
“Obviously Pendles and Sidey have won them. It’s obviously pretty significant. But it hasn’t sunk in yet. I haven’t kicked five yet, so that was pretty special.”
A crafty, cheeky forward, Ginnivan plays beyond his years and, and from afar, it’s difficult not to think he’s loving every minute.
He’s taking baby steps as a footballer, but is leapfrogging much of the competition as a personality.
Fair play to him. He’s walking the walk.
He shushed the crowd when he kicked his second goal in the second quarter, which was so Jason Akermanis. And that’s not a criticism.
In the third quarter, he poked out his tongue and danced away when he kicked a third and fourth goal in time on.
Forget his song and dance routine, they were clutch goals in an ever-tightening match.
People have argued that less of Ginnivan is better, but that’s nonsense.
In world of wokeness and rules and process and systems, Ginnivan is his own man and good luck to him.
When he kicked his fifth goal in the final quarter, the man of the match award was his if the Magpies could hang on and win.
They did, and they are now 3-3 and in eighth position on the ladder.
The Pies have been accused of playing too much ballistic footy too early in games, and running out of gas by the end. But Anzac Day wasn’t like that.
It was a struggle and they hung tough to win. Aren’t they the best wins?
The Bombers were much better.
Essendon chairman Paul Brasher said at the official Anzac Day luncheon on Monday that his Bombers were embarrassed last week against Fremantle.
Anzac Day his embarrassment was replaced with frustration — they wasted so many chances on goal.
The Bombers are now 1-5 after six rounds and in its 150th-year celebratory season, finals are miles off.
Perhaps last year’s finals finish was a fluke — because even though, on Anzac Day, they had more grit about their performance, they desperately need more players.
The second quarter was their problem quarter.
They overused the ball and occasionally lost shape forward of the ball, and when they did manage to get shots on goal, they were too wayward.
Archie Perkins kicked the first and last goals of the second quarter for Essendon, but in between those majors Peter Wright kicked one out of bounds, Darcy Parish marginally fell short from 50m, Matt Guelfi missed when he should’ve off loaded to a teammate 15m from goal, Alec Waterman missed another and Jake Stringer kicked a point from near the boundary line.
Scoreboard pressure, as AFL great David Parkin first coined it, will never go out of fashion.
If the second quarter was about missed opportunity and people wondering why Darcy Parish was not being tagged, the third quarter delivered moments of wonderfully desperate footy — from both teams.
Parish had 30 possessions at half time, and 44 for the game, but other than his clearance work (he had 12 clearances) much of his work is link play.
Of his 44 touches, he had just three inside-50s.
The Bombers surged in the third quarter, yet still the Magpies stayed with them, and when the Pies surged in the last quarter, the Bombers came up short.
Alec Waterman kicked clutch goals, and so did Guelfi and Wright in the final quarter.
Rousingly, Brodie Grundy’s tackle on Jake Kelly, which was arguably his best individual moment of the season, led to Taylor Adams kicking a goal from 50 to give the Pies a 17-point lead.
When Grundy kicked the winner with three minutes to play, which was just his second goal of the season, the popular ruckman grabbed and shook his jumper and bellowed uncontrollably.
The Pies are giving a yelp which is good for footy, and a young man named Jack from Castlemaine with his bleached blonde hair is loving every minute of it
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