Jacob Townsend has been ‘battling away’ under the radar and that’s the way he likes it
THREE weeks ago Jacob Townsend was planning his future as a carpenter. On Friday night, he’ll walk onto the MCG as one of Richmond’s most potent forwards.
Richmond
Don't miss out on the headlines from Richmond. Followed categories will be added to My News.
JACOB Townsend is a bolt of lightning.
Three weeks ago he was looking to find work as a carpenter next year but, after two stunning games for Richmond, he’s now football’s version of Roy Hobbs, the kid with talent who virtually disappeared and who has returned to be the wildcard match-winner.
“I’ve heard of Roy Hobbs,” Townsend said. “I don’t know who he is because I don’t watch a lot of movies.”
Hobbs was a baseball fantasy story which became a movie. Townsend’s story is inspiring and real and upon us at the MCG.
FINALS TEAMS: WHO WILL BE THE UNLUCKY TIGER?
HARD TO TAKE: HOW FINALS LOSSES HAUNT YOUR DREAMS
FINALS TIME: FOOTY STARS’ TOP 20 PUMP UP SONGS
NEW MAN: HOW TIGERS WIPED “SLATE CLEAN”
Unbelievably, it is Townsend’s third game of the season.
The promising junior from Leeton in NSW was preselected by the GWS Giants in 2011. He played eight games in 2012, then eight, eight, one, four and now three games in each season since.
So, who are you and where have you been?
“Just been battling away,” he said.
His story is untold because Townsend has wanted it to be untold. Until now.
Townsend has a stutter. He can’t remember when he didn’t stutter. Regardless of his football talents, he never wanted to be superstar footballer because he knew he’d have to do TV interviews and, well, that wouldn’t be happening.
He kicked six goals in Round 22 against Fremantle and he wasn’t approached by the TV boundary rider on the field after the siren.
He kicked five goals in Round 23 against St Kilda and again wasn’t sought after on the ground for an interview.
If he kicks another bag against Geelong on Friday night, there probably won’t be a post-match interview, either. He says he will wave them away.
“That’s my plan anyway,’’ he said. “I’m not sure if that works or not.”
Townsend likes to talk. He’s sharp, he’s interesting and he’s interested. But always there’s the stutter. It stops him, he says, from joining conversations because he knows he’s going to stutter before he speaks. So, he shuts up.
The internal torment rages. “I know what to say and how to say it, but can’t say it,” he said.
The condition affected his confidence as child.
“Definitely. I didn’t talk much, didn’t want to talk much. Even now, talking to mates, I know when I’m going to stutter before I even do it, so I won’t say what I’m going to say.
“If we’re having a conversation about something and I know some facts to add to the conversation, and if I know I’m going to stutter, I won’t say it and I won’t try to say it. There’s the frustration.
“I could talk to you now and I could do it once or twice, but if I see you tomorrow it might be 10 times worse.
“Sometimes when I’m comfortable and calm, it doesn’t really come as much, but when I’m anxious or put on the spot a bit more, it does.
“I’m good right now, but if you put a camera there (pointing across the table), even if it’s not live, but I know the camera’s there, I’d go to shit.’’
Townsend was a normal kid from Leeton, near Wagga Wagga. He had mates galore, two older sisters in Emily and Sarah, and played as much sport as he could. But there was the speech problem.
He says he was never bullied at school or on the football field as a junior or as an AFL player; “I don’t really talk that much on the ground’’.
“I wish I didn’t have one, but you have to face it,’’ he said. “I know people don’t judge me, well, I don’t think they do — I haven’t been bullied or teased growing up.
“Going through school everyone says what they want to do. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t do anything where I’d have to talk in, you know, I can’t do anything where I have to talk a fair bit because I wouldn’t be able to do it.
“I am self conscious about it ... internally, I wish I don’t do it.’’
Mum Denise and dad Peter took him to speech pathologist in Leeton when was a young boy. “I remember half going to him, but I can’t remember what I did there,” he said.
In Year 7, he started online therapy with a specialist, which lasted until Year 10.
His parents, who separated when Townsend was in Year 2, he said, were constant support, even sitting in on the online therapy sessions. He’d also have one-on-one sessions.
“For some reason I was worse with Dad talking,” he said. “He was never harsh with me, but for some reason it was worse. I always remember him telling me to be calm and to settle down.”
The therapy stopped when he was about 16.
“You can’t beat it, you can’t completely cure it. I know there’s things I could do but I just don’t choose to do them,” he said.
“I don’t know why, it’s weird. If ... I ... talk ... real ... slow ... like ... this ... and I think about what I’m going to say, I could talk like this for hours, but I feel like I’m talking slow and it sounds weird.’’
Townsend was challenged when he made rep teams as an under-15, then at the nationals in the under-16s, for the GWS TAC Cup team in 2010 and then at the AIS Academy when 17. That season he moved to Sydney as a zone selection by the Giants.
Being out of his comfort zone in the Riverina meant meeting new teammates and officials.
“I was sort of scared, not scared, but embarrassed by it at the start of rep footy,” he said.
In his AIS year, in 2011, he thrived as a rugged inside midfielder and when he got to the Giants, coach Kevin Sheedy loved him.
“He’s the toughest kid I coached at the Giants,” Sheedy said.
In the AIS program, which included a trip to Italy, Turkey and London, Townsend had to introduce himself to his peers.
“I remember that speech,” he said. “I remember I had to get up and talk about myself at the start. It was daunting like it always is. The first 10 seconds is not easy, but I get calmer, I don’t know how it works, but I work myself up pretty badly if I know I have to stand up in front of a group.’’
He played 11 games under Sheedy in his first season and just two reserves game because every time he recovered from injury, Sheedy picked him.
His issues though spread wide. He wasn’t an elite runner in speed or endurance, nor did he rack up huge numbers as a midfielder and he was injury prone. His lack of professionalism didn’t aid him, either.
So much so, at the start of his third season, he was given an alcohol ban by football manager Gubby Allan.
From Round 1 to the bye round he was off the beer. A week before the bye was Josh Bruce’s birthday and, after he texted Gubby, he was allowed to break the curfew by a week.
“That’s when I started to take it more professional and knew I wasn’t just going to get games.’’
He didn’t. He played eight games in 2014, one game in 2015, and was at Richmond in 2016.
His career continued to stagnate at the Tigers.
In 2016 he played four games, his last in Round 14 against Brisbane.
Playing as a midfielder in the VFL, the 187cm Townsend was asked to play ruck/key forward when Ben Griffiths was a late out. “I didn’t get anywhere near the ball,” he said.
His 2017 season had him playing mid-forward in the VFL until Josh Caddy ripped a hamstring against Geelong in Round 21.
Then arrived the lightning bolt.
Coach Damian Hardwick called him on the Thursday before the Dockers game while he was shopping at Highpoint and told him he was playing.
His role was to be accountable for Michael Johnson, compete in the air, hit it hard on the ground and anything else would be a bonus.
Mostly always the last man picked and first player booted, he was unsure if he’d get a second game. He did.
The next week it was St Kilda’s Jake Carlisle and the instruction was the same — the 11 goals was the bonus.
Unbelievably, three weeks ago, the 24-year-old was a world away from the MCG and 95,000 fans.
He’d wondered if he was good enough, or if he would get another contract and, in fact, had started planning where he’d clock up the hours next year - he needs 800 - to become a qualified carpenter.
“It was frustrating throughout the year,’’ he said. “But I focused on playing my best footy and being the first cab off the rank if someone goes down. I had to be the first one picked.’’
He was, although he wasn’t anticipating being the second key-forward target alongside Jack Riewoldt.
It’s not known if he’ll be employed to do another pest role, because after kicking 11.1 in those two games, he might be the hunted and not the hunter. Riewoldt will likely get Tom Lonergan, Harry Taylor likely will go forward to Alex Rance, leaving Lachie Henderson for Townsend.
“Two weeks ago, I didn’t think I would be doing this,” he said.
“It is a lightning bolt, but I don’t feel any different. I don’t like or want too much attention. No one knew who I was and I was pretty pleased with that.”
They know him now and another haul of five goals will have all the footy world talking about him. All except one.
The man himself knows actions are more powerful than words.
Just bored, Dusty? Suns to probe star, contract details revealed
Dustin Martin will be asked to convince the Gold Coast of his desire to play on as the details of a potential contract offer come to light. JON RALPH has more.
Ralph: Dusty doesn’t owe cynical Tigers fans a thing
If Dustin Martin does move to the Suns, he’s not Dusty the Deserter, he doesn’t owe the Tiger army anything, writes Jon Ralph. But there’s a key question the legend must answer.