Tom Jonas explains his journey from ‘not lighting the world on fire’ in school footy to becoming Port Adelaide’s new captain
In his first sit-down interview as Port Adelaide’s sole captain, Tom Jonas says his appointment is bittersweet, how packing wines gave him good grounding and his leadership plans for 2020.
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Tom Jonas reckons he can usually blend into a crowd in Adelaide.
“Back pockets aren’t as recognisable and the style of game I play isn’t conducive to stardom or popularity,” Jonas, 28, says with a laugh.
“I’m bothered far less (than the likes of Travis Boak, Ollie Wines and Robbie Gray) and if you’ve got big Charlie Dixon or Westy (Justin Westhoff) standing a head above the rest of the crowd, I’m relatively inconspicuous.”
But Jonas concedes that is already starting to change since being named as Port Adelaide’s new sole captain this month.
“My face has been plastered everywhere and I feel sorry for people having to see my mug all the time,” he jokes.
Jonas was thrust into the limelight at Alberton 12 months ago when Port broke with tradition by announcing him as one of its co-captains, but he shared the responsibility with the much higher-profiled Wines.
After the Power missed the finals for a second consecutive year, Jonas went into the off-season unsure if the club would change tack on its leadership structure.
He married his long-time partner Millie in a wedding featuring vice-captain Hamish Hartlett as MC, then honeymooned in Tasmania.
A few weeks after returning from the Apple Isle, discussions on how the captaincy model would look for the club’s 150th anniversary in 2020 began between Jonas, Wines, Harlett, president David Koch, senior coach Ken Hinkley, chief executive Keith Thomas and football manager Chris Davies.
Jonas and Wines were together when they learnt the news that Jonas would be skipper and Wines a vice-captain, which Jonas called “a little bit bittersweet”.
“There was a lot of rumblings and conjecture about what might happen but no substance to any of it and we hadn’t been told that there was a review or anything going on,” Jonas says.
“The week before it happened we got together and consulted with the key parties.
“Keith and Kochie obviously represented the club and key stakeholders, who are the supporters, and we came to a collective decision about what was best for the whole club, then it was a matter about who it was going to be, and I was the choice for that.
“It was a really tough one because I’m really good mates with Ollie and for me to get the captaincy and him lose it, I felt bad for him.
“I’m proud to pull on the No. 1 and lead the club but at the same time I didn’t want it to affect Ollie and our relationship, which I don’t think it has.
“He’s been incredible the way he’s dealt with it and it shows the quality human he is, how much of a leader he is and how much he cares about the club.
“We see each other every day and talk every day, which is what we did as co-captains and realistically not much will change aside from the numbers I’m wearing.”
Jonas’s journey to the No. 1 guernsey and becoming sole captain of a club was inauspicious to say the least.
Not just because the former No. 42 made his AFL debut in a club record 165-point loss to Hawthorn at the MCG and played in only two wins in his first two seasons in 13 games on the Power list.
He was never a state junior footballer and “wasn’t lighting the world on fire” as “just a role player” for Rostrevor College in Year 12.
The next season he lined up for the school’s old collegians when he could not get a game for Norwood’s under-18s early on and worked part-time delivering wine for Skye Cellars.
“I’d pack shipping containers to go to China and be labelling bottles for a week straight solo on the bottling line,” he says.
“I’d put them in one end and get them out the other end for nine hours a day for a week or two – some pretty boring sh**, but that’s the real world.”
Jonas believes his life experience may have helped him earn his spot in Port’s leadership group just 34 games into his career.
“On reflection it’s probably a pretty strange thing,” he says.
“I probably had some experience outside of footy, I’d worked a part-time job and gone to university (to study law) and came through the back door a bit through the (2010) rookie draft.
“I’d cut my teeth being really ruthless and selfless and doing whatever I could for the team, which turned out to be strong traits for leadership.”
Jonas had also shown those qualities at Rostrevor, where he was a prefect and was able to make his way into a Bachelor of Laws at Adelaide University – a degree he completed a few years ago.
He is also three subjects into an MBA at Torrens University, managing director of Hey Diddle Wines with teammate Brad Ebert and is also Port’s AFL Players Association delegate.
“I’m interested in the operations side of business, whether it’s in the sporting environment or private sector,” he says.
“Hey Diddle is a hobby and something Ebo and I use as a diversion from footy because it takes us out of our comfort zones.
“Hopefully I fall on my feet post-footy.”
For a self-described “pretty boring kid from Magill”, Jonas has got a lot going on his life.
But he still finds time to head to the family shack at Younghusband most Saturdays during pre-season to go fishing, camping or waterskiing with his younger brothers Sam and Ben.
Up there, he can be himself – which is exactly who he plans to be when he takes on his new title next season and hopes to lead the Power into the finals for the first time since 2017.
“We want to be a playing group that our members and supporters can be proud of,” he says.
“We’ve got such a young robust list, I don’t think there’s any limit on where we can finish.
“We’ve been right there the past two years, whether it’s a close game or two or just falling out of form at the wrong time, but our best football is more than good enough.
“My leadership approach won’t change from how I am day to day – leading by example and if I see something that I think is good or not good, I’ll bring it to the boys’ attention.
“Scrutiny has never been anything that’s worried me – I’ve never been perfect, I’ve always made mistakes.
“It’s more that I’m prepared to be the best captain I can be.
“I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not.”
Originally published as Tom Jonas explains his journey from ‘not lighting the world on fire’ in school footy to becoming Port Adelaide’s new captain