AFL Grand Final 2023: The rise of Collingwood star Jamie Elliott
By his own admission, Jamie Elliott was a lazy kid with an AFL dream and no plan B. It took a local farmer in his home town of Euroa to help him build the fitness and attitude to achieve it.
Jamie Elliott’s AFL dream was slipping through his fingers by the time the Euroa community launched the rearguard action that would propel him to stardom.
The Murray Bushrangers goalsneak had already been ignored in one draft.
After suffering a double break of his collarbone mid-season, he was out of chances to impress, and out of luck.
Every AFL recruiter had passed on him already – seemingly unimpressed by his lack of fitness – and he had three months and no more games until the 2011 draft camp.
Two days ago, as Elliott reflected on the family members and friends who changed his life, he made clear he would never forget their role in his meteoric rise.
From mum Fiona, who raised him and his three siblings as a single mother in Euroa, working two jobs to make ends meet. She instilled in him the values he recognises today.
To father Jamie, who died of cancer when Elliott was 13 but who he honours with a tattoo as a motivating reminder.
To his siblings including sister Caitlyn, who Elliott joked was a “tomboy” and “devil child” as they raised hell growing up together just over two hours from Melbourne.
And to the Euroa Football Club members who put in place a plan involving local citizen and farmer Kevin McFarlane, who has trained more than 100 down-on-their-luck kids, budding AFL stars and athletes in a gym housed in a shed on his farm.
They put in place an ambitious plan to transform the wildly talented Elliott into the kind of athlete who could prove to the AFL recruiters he was fit enough to play at the elite level.
“I was reflecting on that last week leading into the GWS game,” Elliott told this masthead of his three-month training camp.
“Kevvy McFarlane is a guy who trained me when I broke my collarbone in 2011 leading into my draft year. He didn’t have to do it, and I spent a 12-week block with him to basically get fit.
“The year before I had gone to the state combine and I had run a 10 beep or something terrible. Worse than what ruckmen run. It was pretty embarrassing. So the following year I got to work with Kevvy in his little shed on his farm. Doing random things, riding trails, running dirt tracks.
“I didn’t have a (driver’s) licence. I was working on the farm with my sister’s boyfriend as a farmhand. I was doing random jobs – livestock and agistment. I usually got a lift out with him and knocked off at 4 or 5pm and then rode back into town and then back out to Kevvy’s on the other side of town. And he had a little shed and he had gym equipment in there, and we got to work in there a few times a week. Long runs. Down at the Memorial Oval training on weekends.
“I wasn’t the greatest kid. Mum was working two jobs so I could get away with not going to school, and I got pretty lazy with homework and footy, it dropped away.
“There was a period where I was 14-15 to 17-18 where I didn’t rock up to training or have any discipline in my life.
“I sat down with Kevvy and a guy from Euroa who said if you want to get drafted and you want to play AFL footy, you have got to put in the hard yards.”
The lure of that AFL dream stirred something in Elliott.
The commute to McFarlane’s farm was no small thing – riding his bike 20km across town – or running 7km from town before returning for Euroa or Murray Bushrangers commitments on the same night.
He told McFarlane he had no plan B – football was his only lifeline as his family meanwhile endured a series of setbacks.
Having relocated from Queensland to Euroa after father Jamie’s death, brother Matthew was driving from Euroa back to Queensland in 2009 when his car hit a tree.
Mother Fiona refused to turn off the life support and he made it through after weeks in a coma.
Jamie, who had dropped out of the Bushrangers program for a time after the crash, was still reluctant to drive so rode his bike or ran to the farm as he built his fitness.
McFarlane never doubted Elliott’s talent or drive, still reminded of him arriving for each session with stopwatch, towel, water bottle and a determined look on his face.
“I am just proud to be a stepping stone,” he said on Monday. “He just needed a little guidance. Jamie was a bloke who was going to get somewhere regardless of the people who helped him along the way.
“He had a lot of reasons not to succeed. But he was power driven. Mentally strong and physically power driven. All he needed was a few sign posts. He never once faltered in his commitment to me.
“He came from a different world. Where Jamie came from, everything was hard. But it was a privilege to be around him and to watch him work.”
As the weeks ticked past, Elliott’s times grew faster as he approached that beep test – a fitness test combining a 20m shuttle run at ever-increasing speeds.
“I ran a beep test the week before the combine,” Elliott said.
“I went down to Memorial Oval and ran a 14.1 or a 14.2. I wanted to hit a 14 so bad. And then I got to the combine and ran it again. I had done it. I was so stoked. It was my goal. I was so happy. I was more thrilled doing it on the netball court because I knew I was capable of doing it at the combine. I ticked that off.”
Weeks later, Collingwood jumped at the chance to secure him, trading pick 25 to GWS for the small forward and Irishman Marty Clark under a deal that allowed the expansion club to secure previously listed talent.
Elliott is still in awe of mum Fiona, who now works as a nurse in Euroa after doing so much to help her kids prosper.
“She was a single mum and she supported us growing up. Just the way she carries herself, she has instilled a level of maturity in me at an early age which has carried me well,” Elliott said.
“She was at a nursing home working long hours. They were usually understaffed so she was often there. She worked at a fish and chip shop, which she ended up owning and running for a bit.
“Random jobs to support us. It was a tough time. And she’s a strong woman. So she will get embarrassed I am even talking about her, but I have got a lot of love for her.”
Sister Caitlyn traversed a similar journey to Jamie as they finally found purposes in life.
“It’s amazing how much she’s grown as a person,” he said.
“She has three kids now with her partner. She was similar to me in running amok. She was a devil child, a little tomboy. And now she’s a young lady who works extremely hard, has a strong work ethic and it stems from Mum instilling that into us as kids. The same as my brothers.”
Elliott is more circumspect about his father’s death.
“I probably won’t speak too much about it but I have a tattoo that says “Dad” on my inner bicep and he played a big part in my life, and obviously that was rough (to lose him) when I was a kid. But these things happen and I don’t really have too much more to say about that,” he said.
On Saturday, Elliott will play in his first grand final against the Brisbane side he went close to joining at the back end of 2019.
A player now renowned as Collingwood’s ice man for his steadiness in clutch moments endured a string of setbacks – repeated hamstring issues, back and ankle surgery – before finding the secret to managing his body.
It means he is determined to cash in at 31 years of age, aware how quickly the premiership window can slam.
“It is a bit of a blur, that year,” he says of the 2018 season in which he failed to play a single senior game.
“It was pretty heartbreaking. It was hard with my hamstring because I did it early. Then I did a training block and played VFL and then I pinged it again. I did that three times.
“And then we got to finals and the grand final. Being part of a club for six or seven years and not having the chance to perform on the big stage was disappointing. It’s hard to reflect on because it was a really tough time, and we didn’t get the success either.”
And yet five seasons on he gets his moment to shine in black and white stripes instead of under Chris Fagan’s command.
“Brisbane was the team I grew up supporting,” he said. “I grew up in Queensland for three years and I had the opportunity to go there at the end of 2019 but I’m glad I didn’t. I will be able to look back on the memories I have made in the last couple of years … It’s been a special time at the club.
“Especially having Craig (McRae) at the club, having been coached by him for three or four years as a development coach, to share that is special.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
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