St Kilda midfielder Jack Sinclair opens up on how he almost walked away from football
Jack Sinclair signed up for a business degree after missing the 2013 draft. Two years later he found himself on an AFL list with a little help from childhood friend Jack Billings. Now both are reaping the rewards.
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It was 2007, and a young Jack Sinclair roamed the basketball courts of Kew East Primary.
The task for the Grade 6 class was simple — a primary school graduation yearbook to mark their passage to senior education, with the 12-year-olds asked to cast their mind to how their life might look a decade down the track.
“In 2017, I hope to be playing AFL for St Kilda or wicketkeeping for the Australian Cricket team,” Sinclair wrote.
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There’s still time for the second, although Tim Paine is doing a pretty solid job ahead of the upcoming World Cup and Ashes series, but Sinclair is literally living his childhood dream at Moorabbin.
His grandfather, Bill Gleeson, played 15 games for the Saints in 1955 and 1956, booting 11 goals and resulting in generations of dedicated St Kilda supporters.
Somewhere along the way, Sinclair drifted to become a Carlton barracker, “but still always wanted to play for St Kilda”.
“We had one of (Gleeson’s) old jumpers and a few photos of him and the team — my grandma kept like a little sort of scrapbook, as well,” Sinclair said.
“He died when I was pretty young but I’ve seen a few things.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. A lot of guys just want to play AFL, but this is the club that I’ve wanted to be at for my whole life. I do pinch myself. It’s pretty cool rocking up here every day and wearing number 35.”
Sinclair, 24, will “rock up” to Moorabbin for another two years after this week re-signing until the end of 2021.
“You never really feel that comfortable in the side, but I’m happy with the way it’s going at the moment,” he said.
“I’m playing a whole bunch of positions, which has been fun, so been thrown around forward, on the wing and a bit inside mid, so I’m still improving and I’d like to be a bit more consistent, but it’s coming along.
“It’s nice to know that I’ll be around for another couple of years.”
It wasn’t always seamless.
It was only a few years after his hopeful pre-teen declaration that the spark was snuffed.
High school years at Scotch College had brought sport aplenty — Kew Comets on Sundays alongside now-teammate Jack Billings, Kangaroo Luke McDonald and former Lion Hugh Beasley, basketball at Kew East and eventually senior cricket at Kew.
But by his final year, Sinclair felt just about done with the Sherrin, turning down an opportunity to showcase his wares in the state Under-18 competition and even entertained giving the round ball a crack.
“I didn’t really want to play footy in Year 12, to be honest. And I said no to Oakleigh to doing pre-season, because I was playing cricket,” he said.
“I was a bit over it … I was playing a lot of seconds in the second half of Year 11 and just wasn’t really enjoying footy, to be honest. I was thinking about playing soccer. My old man was like, ‘Just do what you want to do’ and everyone else was like, ‘You’re an idiot — play footy’.”
Former Collingwood player and ex-Scotch head of sport Barry Price wasn’t having a bar of that.
“He sat me down in his office and said, ‘You’re not playing soccer … I want to see you playing with your mates’,” Sinclair recalled.
“I said, ‘Whatever you say’ — he was a big figure. I had a pretty good year of school footy — I just wanted to go out there and have fun, and I did.”
Billings got drafted, at pick three. Having played just three TAC Cup games, Sinclair knew his dream could be over, but took up a business degree at Monash University and agreed to a year with Oakleigh Chargers as a 19-year-old.
It was the only season since Auskick, where they’d met “at the top oval in Victoria Park (in Kew)” aged about six, that the pair didn’t share a field.
A stint at Port Melbourne and a push to Saints recruiter Tony Elshaug by Billings had Sinclair in the mix, and he was offered a rookie spot in the 2015 rookie draft, finding comfort in sharing the locker room with his old schoolmate.
“It’s good to see him in the leadership group now,” Sinclair said of Billings.
“He’s really stepped up in that space and has taken his footy to another level too which is great to see. He made it so much more comfortable for me coming in as a young kid, having one of your best mates here.
“We’re probably more like brothers, really, than best friends. We don’t hang out all the time, but it’s just nice to have him there if I want to have a chat or whatever. It’s just really good to see what he’s been doing.”
Sinclair’s love of the world game hasn’t diminished, despite sticking with Australian rules.
He often wakes up in the early hours to watch Liverpool in action, and names Reds great Steven Gerrard as his favourite sportsman.
If he feels pressure in wearing the number of club great Robert Harvey, he doesn’t show it, though Sinclair admits it is “pretty cool” to see the Brownlow medallist and childhood hero’s name adorning his locker each day.
Many — including his teammates — were surprised by Champion Data anointing him as the Saints’ only “elite-ranked” player at the start of last season, and while he “copped a bit of stick” for the tag, Sinclair said he saw it as a valuable lesson.
“If anything, it was a good message to the rest of the playing group that if you start the first five games in the VFL, you can still come in and have a good year,” he said.
“When Richo told the group, he said, ‘We’ve got one elite midfielder … who is it?’. And he went through and asked all the boys — ‘You have a guess’.
“He asked about 11 or 12 blokes and I think Jack Steele or Tim Membrey finally said me and I think everyone was pretty surprised. I copped a bit of stick, but it’s a good message that you might not have the perfect start to the year, but you can still come in and have a really good impact.”
‘SIMPLE’ SAINTS A WORK IN PROGRESS
Change has been the tonic at St Kilda this summer, though coach Alan Richardson admits things might have been taken a little too far.
The Saints have gone from second in the competition for disposals to 10th, with the drop in numbers a symptom of sending the ball long and forcing stoppages.
It has resulted in the team rocketing from last in the competition last year for stoppages to third.
It’s been a more “simple” Saints.
But Richardson has conceded the style – which has produced three wins in four rounds – might be too under-pace.
“It’s frustrating us a little bit too,” he said this week.
“We’re still coming to terms a little bit with what 6-6-6 is doing to rebound. We know it’s helping teams score from centre bounce, but in terms of rebound, the reality is you don’t have the free players – it’s hard to get overlap and that’s been a real strength of our game.
“We’re still working through that and we’re not deliberately wanting to be as slow and as deliberate as we have been.”
Sinclair credited the “positive” coaching staff and said players have been afforded “more licence to play in different positions and get more involved in the game”.
For Sinclair, that’s meant “being thrown around”, which he welcomed.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of guys being thrown around in the midfield, which keeps opposition teams guessing a bit,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I think in the past we’ve been a bit too one-dimensional, with the same sort of four guys playing inside mid but then now we’ve got Gresh (Jade Gresham) going through there a bit, Longy (Ben Long), Matty Parker.
“There’s been a lot of changes over the off-season in terms of game-plan and our whole system.”
WHERE THE SAINTS SIT
Disposals
2018: 2nd. 2019: 10th
Marks
2018: 4th. 2019: 17th
Mark Play On %
2018: 1st. 2019: 17th
Kick long %
2018: 12th. 2019: 4th
Stoppages
2018: 18th., 2019: 3rd
- Champion Data
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