By Marc McGowan
The Whitlock twins are not identical, and want you to know they are two different people.
They are strikingly similar enough that recruiters often confused them this year while they starred for the Murray Bushrangers and Victoria Country, but there are subtle differences if you look closely enough.
The Whitlock twins, Jack and Matt, are set to be first-round selections in next week’s AFL draft.Credit: Eddie Jim
Jack was born two minutes before Matt, and is two centimetres taller, at almost two metres – or slightly above six-foot-five – but both are set to be first-round picks in Wednesday night’s AFL draft.
If that eventuates, the brothers from Kialla, on Shepparton’s outskirts, will join Harry and Ben McKay (2015) and Max and Ben King (2018) as twins selected at that stage of the draft in the past decade. But that is only how the outside world, including the media, views them.
The Whitlocks’ parents, Angela and Paul, never dressed them the same, made sure they were in different classes at school and did not even mention “twin”, to the extent the boys came home from kinder one day and asked what the word meant.
“We always did two [birthday] cakes, two songs. We’d sing to Jack, then we’d sing to Matt, then the next year, we’d sing to Matt first and then Jack,” Angela told The Age.
“We’re not really into twinning it up. I think a lot of people were trying to figure out with us how twinny they are because they’re so close … but no one in our family refers to them as ‘the twins’. When they started footy again, I said to them, ‘Oh, here we go, you’re going to start getting called the twins’.
“We always kept them in separate classes, so they could have their own thing because otherwise, you hear some kids, and they go, ‘Hi, Jack-and-Matt’ – like it’s one word.”
Stories such as these only perpetuate the issue, but the family does understand the interest and enjoys parts of the experience.
“I guess it’s a bit up and down. It’s good having your brother, or a twin, who goes through everything together [with you], but at the same time, I’m my own person,” Jack said.
Jack and Matt Whitlock, running on Shepparton’s Deakin Reserve, are two of the best key-position prospects in the draft.Credit: Eddie Jim
“I am who I am. We’re not really together – we’re just brothers. We’re not really twins, in some sense, and we’re actually fairly different.”
Matt chimed in at that point: “We’ve always dressed differently. I’ve got the bright boots, and he’s got the darker boots. Mum and Dad raised us as two different individuals.”
The backyard battles
The Whitlocks’ first and fiercest opponents were each other, on the family’s 80-acre farm, which doubled as a quasi-sports complex.
They spent so much time outside playing sport at home that Jack joked their mum would punish them for misbehaving by locking them inside.
Their 15-year-old brother, Alex, is often handed umpiring duties, but is starting to hit the more serious stage of his own football, although he is more of a “crafty forward” rather than an oversized key-position prospect like his older siblings, Angela said.
We might hear more about Alex in the years to come, too, given he just represented the Goulburn Murray Bushrangers in the under-15 V/Line Cup.
The Whitlocks have old pipes as goalposts at the front of their property, plus a concrete tennis court out the back, along with a basketball court, a wall used for cricket, previously a dedicated soccer area, and plenty of space otherwise to run and kick the Sherrin.
Jack Whitlock fends off a rival during this year’s AFL under-18 championships.Credit: AFL Photos
“It’s not every day you can go in the backyard and have one of the best key-position players in Australia to play against, so it’s very valuable,” Jack said.
“It’s good having someone to go through the same battles, and then also the same wins as you through life. We push each other pretty hard.”
As brothers, the only times they would argue were while debating a foul on the basketball court – where they battled it out one-on-one for hours until it was pitch-black – or if the ball was in or out.
There were also lengthy “markers up” battles, where Angela was almost always the kicker.
“I remember my husband saying, ‘Do we need to get some big booming lights?’,” Angela said. “And I was like, ‘No, if we did that, they’ll never come inside’.”
The Whitlocks played basketball for the Shepparton Gators and represented Victoria Country in that sport as well before giving it up competitively at the start of last year to focus on football.
“I honestly love my basketball, and it was a pretty tough decision for me to stop,” Matt said.
The AFL dream
The Whitlocks were on recruiters’ radars for years, but both took major strides forward in 2024.
Jack made everyone take notice in the opening round of the Talent League, taking seven marks, kicking 4.4 and racking up 13 score involvements in a towering performance at Tasmania’s expense that illustrated his raw ability and athleticism.
It was enough for AFL academy selectors to rush him into the elite squad – and his game drew rave reviews from the league’s talent ambassador, Kevin Sheehan.
“I was dying to see a 200-centimetre boy [break out],” Sheehan told this masthead ahead of this year’s under-18 championships. “He grabbed that match by the scruff of the neck.”
Jack and Matt Whitlock enjoyed eye-catching seasons for the Murray Bushrangers and Victoria Country.Credit: Eddie Jim
Just as everything was blossoming for Jack, he broke a finger playing for the academy side, sidelining him for six weeks. That injury impacted Matt, too, after he started the year strongly down back, including 11 intercept marks in his first three games.
With his brother and fellow goalkicker Josh Murphy injured, the Bushrangers swung Matt into attack with devastating effect.
Matt kicked bags of five goals twice in his first three matches after the move, and remained up forward for most of the season, while reverting to defence at the under-18 championships.
The switch was reminiscent of the King twins’ 2018 season, when Max’s ACL rupture saw Ben go forward from defence – and that became his position at AFL level.
“I always planned to swing forward in my draft year because, predominantly, I played down back as a bottom-ager. I had talks with Mark Brown, the Bushies coach, about swinging me forward post-champs,” Matt said.
“I wanted to be that key defender/centre half-back in the Country side, but with Jack and Josh going down with injury, I got swung forward a little bit earlier and played some good footy there.”
Matt has no preference on which position he plays, and prides himself on his versatility – which has impressed talent scouts enough that he is viewed as a potential top-20 selection. Jack returned from injury in time for the championships and finished the season strongly for the Bushrangers as well.
All that is left now is where they end up, with 16 of the 18 clubs visiting the family home.
Angela, who taught her boys in physical education at Goulburn Valley Grammar School, is preparing herself for the possibility her two eldest sons will join an interstate club.
The Whitlocks will be in the AFL next year, and they will find out which club in a few days’ time.Credit: Eddie Jim
There was some talk among recruiters during the week that the Giants might try to draft them both, but Matt said he would prefer they ended up at different teams.
“It’d be pretty hard for one club to get both of us,” he said. “If that happens, then that happens, but it’d be good to go somewhere else, and sort of grow as your own person even more.”
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