Jarryd Roughead’s farewell match will be a chance to celebrate an AFL and Hawthorn great, writes Mark Robinson
Jarryd Roughead will get the farewell game his years of sterling service to Hawthorn deserved. As Mark Robinson writes, Sunday will be a chance for fans to say thankyou to one of the people’s champions.
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It’s been six weeks in the planning, this farewell game.
And it’s been 14 years and 282 games in the making.
Jarryd Roughead announced his retirement from football on Monday, at the same time Hawthorn announced he would play against the Gold Coast Suns on Sunday.
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There’s been many grand afternoons for Roughy, but this one will be emotional.
Perhaps not as emotional as Round 1, 2017.
But when the big fella is chaired from the ground and thousands of fans stand as one on Sunday, well, it’s what football should be for its champs.
That’s what Roughy is, a people’s champion.
He’s adored by Hawks fans and admired by the rest of us.
For the way he played on the field, all fair and fearless, and for the way he coped with off it, when fear and courage married as opposites.
He hasn’t always been a media lover, which belies his laid back, beer-in-hand country persona, but media was never out to mess with Roughy.
Perhaps the media never quite gave Roughead his due recognition.
He came to the Hawks from Leongatha via the 2004 draft, which also just happened to deliver Lance Franklin and Jordan Lewis.
Have always wondered what Roughy felt like playing with Buddy.
One was the most flamboyant footballer since Wayne Carey who made headlines more than he kicked goals, and the other was the supposed sidekick from Leongatha, where there’s more dairy cows than people.
Everyone remembers Buddy’s 100 goals in 2008, but how many outside of Hawthorn remembers Roughead’s 75?
That, in 2013, Roughead won the Coleman Medal with 72 goals from 25 games and Franklin kicked 60 from 19 games.
In their time together across nine season at Hawthorn, Roughead kicked 366 goals and Franklin 580.
Two hundred-odd fewer goals seems substantial, but when you consider Roughead might be the most ignored key forward ever to play the game, it’s an appreciable return.
That’s not a criticism, it’s a basic football fact that Franklin heavily attracted his teammates’ attention.
Throughout his career, Roughead was football durable, competitive and had confident one-grab hands. He has kicked 572.369 and become one of the most athletic and versatile big men in the game.
For a period, Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson used him as a on-baller, an old fashioned ruck-rover. Not bad for a key forward.
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But it was the other bloke, Lewis, who would stand the test of time with Roughy.
They are best mates, were best man at each other’s weddings and godfathers to their children.
They won four premierships together and are destined for the Hall of Fame.
Yet, their football togetherness, while widely acclaimed, was bumped aside for something far more important.
Roughead had a melanoma in his lip, which was cut out in 2015, but the cancer returned and spread, forcing Roughead to miss all of the 2016 season.
On Fox Footy’s AFL360, the tough and uncompromising Lewis broke down as he spoke of the challenge in front of Roughead.
“It’s going to be a tough road for him but we’re all there for him,’’ Lewis said at the time.
“He called me and he sort of just broke down and asked me to come back (to the club).
“It hit him hard. We sat and had a bit of a cry. No words were really needed.’’
The gravity was not lost on anyone.
So, when Roughead returned for the Round 1 clash against Essendon more than 12 months later, in 2017, the sea of emotion at the MCG was utterly breathtaking.
In the third quarter, he took a mark in front of Michael Hurley and, in his typical no-fuss Roughy way, he casually walked back and slotted home the first goal of his second coming.
He was swamped teammates.
In that very moment, his courage and accomplishment had no bounds.
By then, he had already been appointed captain of the footy club, a position he held through 2017 and 2018, which was extraordinary itself, simply because he had not played for the 12 months previous.
Roughead was more than superb footballer.
He was a popular, team-first player — and liked by opposition players — and who also became a symbol of hope for thousands of cancer sufferers and survivors.
In essence, Roughead will be remembered as an inspiration on and off the field, which is rare for a footballer.
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