Jezza’s simple life: How feeding the chooks has made all the difference to this Cats superstar

His life might be as uncomplicated as an AFL footballer could hope to make it, but Jeremy Cameron is one of football’s great technicians.

His laconic walk into position when play is stopped is a ruse; his mind assesses the game’s potential patterns at breakneck speed. He accelerates into a position to attack quicker than opponents.

Then, when on his game, Cameron can direct the Sherrin wherever he wants. It’s the rare angles his chicken legs and wiry arms can find that allow him to draw or fade or punch the ball in as devastating fashion as a PGA Tour professional hits irons.

Cameron prepares to kick for goal with his customary testing of the ball.Credit: Getty Images

How he combines that with a generosity of spirit and perspective makes him one of football’s much-loved characters.

Cameron has now kicked 700 goals. On Saturday, when he plays his 100th game for Geelong, he returns for the first time to the NSW stadium where he made his name in 171 matches with the Giants.

Cameron remains a popular figure there and his fondness for his former teammates has not diminished since he made the tough decision to return to Victoria’s south-west coast at the end of 2020.

“I played a lot of football there and have a lot of good memories, and a lot of good mates,” Cameron said. “The skipper [Toby Greene] is one of my closest friends and always will be. I’m also looking forward to seeing a lot of their old fans.”

When he says it won’t faze him if he cops some ribbing, you know he’s been completely honest.

How he assesses the wisdom of joining Geelong, where he can live on a property half an hour from the club with his wife Indiana and daughter Macey, is real too.

“Just from a life point of view, I could not be more happy with that side of things. On the football side you never really know. If I stayed up there I still feel like I would have played really good football, as good a football as the football I am playing now. The only difference is away from the football field,” Cameron said.

That happiness has nothing to do with the respective clubs, but the open space he roams at home.

The way Cameron manoeuvres his body makes him a uniquely skilled kick.Credit: Getty Images

Sitting around the bonfire talking rubbish to whoever wants to listen is a good night out for Cameron.

He rides his motorbike every day, checking on work that might need doing. His morning routine is to feed the chooks (a handy skill in dealing with media) and check on the lambs before heading to training.

“Macey wakes up, and it is just all family [and] we do stuff. It just feels at home and when you are happy away from football you tend to play better,” Cameron said.

His form is excellent right now. In his past seven matches he has kicked 32 goals, even though he went goalless in one match (in the wet against Gold Coast). He is entertaining and dangerous.

Cameron on his farm outside Geelong.

It’s reassuring to hear that although he carries a perspective that is the envy of many, he still feels as much frustration as anyone if he is not contributing to the team’s performance as he believes he is capable.

But he lives with a relaxed professionalism many of the best players exhibit. Despite the frenzy that sometimes surrounds the action, Cameron is a welcome reminder that many of those who play the game retain their love for it by keeping it in its place.

“I honestly, very rarely, maybe one game a year, I take [a performance] home,” he said. “I just drove through the front gate then, and I am talking about footy and that is unusual.

“The 30-minute drive out here is when football is put on the backburner. It is lovely to get home with the family and go outside and do things. That’s how I treat things, and it doesn’t change when I am playing badly; I can internally get a bit frustrated with myself, but I know how I can turn it around.”

‘The love for playing the game is well and truly there and still alive. If I wasn’t loving my football I would probably happily walk away pretty quickly .… I am one of those guys that when your time is up, your time is up. I love playing. I love training.’

He turns it around by training hard, which he says he enjoys now – understanding better as he matured that football seasons are marathons, so an average three-week patch is not the end of the world.

“I try not to get too pissed off with it and there have been times when I have been frustrated with how I played, but [the solution is] pretty simple,” Cameron said.

He knows his own form elevated this year as soon as captain Patrick Dangerfield, who is playing predominantly forward now, was injured against Port Adelaide.

Cameron can only acknowledge how it might have appeared to the outside world that the two events were connected before dismissing the convenient theory.

“It probably made it look worse because I wasn’t kicking a helluva lot of goals until he got injured, and then I did, you know, on that exact day, on that exact game he got injured,” Cameron said.

“There is adjustment with everyone. ‘Hawk’ [Tom Hawkins] had to adjust when I got here, and then I played with him and got a nice flow there and then when he got injured and retired I have had to adjust to play with Shannon [Neale] and adjusting to play with ‘Danger’ is no different, and all the other boys have to adjust as well. He gives us a different look, and it has been exciting for us so it is not something I look at and get frustrated with.”

Magnanimous is the word that comes to mind when you hear teammates and opponents describe Cameron as he takes all elements of being an outstanding footballer in his stride.

It’s why talking about milestones such as becoming the 27th player in the game’s history to kick 700 goals (arguably the new 1000 goals) is not his favourite topic.

“I always feel awkward talking about stuff like that, so I brush it off a bit. I just like being out there with the boys,” Cameron said.

But he does admit receiving the handball from his good mate Brad Close to set up the milestone goal means he will always remember the moment. Cameron gave Ollie Henry a similar opportunity, both moments an example of the culture built at the Cats over more than a decade.

“‘Hawk’ was really selfless in how he went about his football as well and that rubs off on you over time,” Cameron said.

Flashback: Cameron the young Giant in 2013.

A second premiership is all the 32-year-old is really chasing, but he doesn’t completely dismiss the prospect he could become the seventh footballer to kick 1000 goals in his career, although you get the sense such a thought is as far from his mind as the far back corner of the fence surrounding his property.

“You need a lot of luck. I have been very lucky and fortunate throughout my career. The love for playing the game is well and truly there and still alive. If I wasn’t loving my football I would probably happily walk away pretty quickly,” Cameron said.

“I am one of those guys that when your time is up, your time is up. I love playing. I love training.”

To describe that as a simple approach would be unfair; instead, they signify a sophisticated outlook underpinned with an all-too-rare simplicity.

The football conversation lingered on the phone after he pulled up at home, but Cameron seemed to have as much time as when he swings on to that left foot for his famous snaps.

“No stress,” he said.

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