Kieren Jack says he’s never experienced a year of highs and lows like Sydney Swans’
KIEREN Jack can’t believe Sydney’s resurgence this season after starting 0-6 and is thankful for more one thing ... he doesn’t have to tag Gary Ablett.
Sydney
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DOWN at Geelong, it’s known as the Kieren Jack Rule.
The unwritten law harks back to 2008, when the future Sydney Swans star was an impressionable young tagger lining up on midfield gun Gary Ablett for the first time.
Jack opened up on the special treatment he received from Cats players whenever he played Ablett, starting with that first game.
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“The Geelong boys used to have this thing where they used to try and rough up the tagger and I was the tagger,” Jack told The Saturday Daily Telegraph.
“I remember my first game down in Geelong tagging Gary Ablett and I got absolutely belted from pillar to post from their older guys just trying to look after him.”
Leading the charge for the Cats was their skipper Tom Harley, who is now Sydney’s football manager and future CEO. When he arrived at the Swans two years ago from the NSWAFL he revealed the system they had in place for Jack.
“He said we had a rule that we called ‘The Kieren Jack Rule’ — whenever a tagger goes at one of our players,” Jack said.
“You’ve gotta go out and rough them up, that’s what they did to me and now it’s infamous down there. I played on him (Ablett) quite regularly during the early days of my career when he was in his prime at Geelong, he was phenomenal.”
When Jack takes on Carlton at the SCG he’ll be counting his lucky stars on several fronts.
The first is he doesn’t have to tag opponents anymore, and the second is Ablett is in the twilight of his career and not with the finals-bound Geelong.
The Swans need a win to keep their slim hopes of a top four spot alive.
They will have to win big against the Blues to move in front of Port Adelaide, who are expected to beat Gold Coast at home and St Kilda to beat Richmond at the MCG.
To be even close to the top four is a remarkable achievement for Sydney who started the season disastrously losing their first six. No team has started even 0-5 has qualified for finals before.
“I’ve never experienced a year like it,” Jack said.
“When you talk about the emotional ups and downs of footy, this exemplifies it really.
“You head into all finals series excited, but we’re genuinely excited and have genuine belief that we belong and if we don’t finish in the top four that doesn’t bother us.
“Finals are so interesting because you can have a poor week and you’re out, but we’ve been there before, we think we know how to deal with it, we’ve got some young experienced guys who were a part of it last year and they’re playing really good football again so it’s an exciting time in the club.”
Originally published as Kieren Jack says he’s never experienced a year of highs and lows like Sydney Swans’
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