AFL grand final 2024: Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry are friends from teenage years and hopeful of playing in a Lions flag
That Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry turned their backs on free-agency riches to re-sign with Brisbane together is no surprise given they’ve been mates since under 18 days. Now they’re plotting a Lions premiership.
When Hugh McCluggage finally signed the seven-year contract that would make him a Brisbane Lion for life, one of his first calls was to Jarrod Berry.
“He came over to my house and told me,” recalls Berry. “It was a pretty special moment.”
As coach Chris Fagan put it earlier this year, the two boys who first bonded at the Greater Western Victoria Rebels have been “joined at the hip” ever since they were drafted to the Lions in 2016.
So naturally, once McCluggage had signed his future to the club, it was not long before Berry followed suit.
In a sliding doors moment, the two boys from country Victoria - McCluggage hails from Warrnambool and Berry from Horsham - turned their backs on the mega riches of free agency to recommit to the Queensland club and its coach that gave them a chance eight years earlier.
“If someone had said at the start that we’d be locked in for 12 or 13 years together up here I wouldn’t have believed it,” says McCluggage.
“It was never a question of where (we would sign) it was always when we were going to sign,” adds Berry.
“It was an important contract for us – our free agency contract. It sets us up for the rest of our lives, so there was a bit more pressure on it than the contracts before that but it’s just all part of the football journey.”
Berry explains the pair did not speak or pressure each other about the contract calls, though they did check in every now and then to make sure they were coping with the weight of the decision.
“I feel like we both had this sense that we knew this was the place we wanted to play our football and we wanted to achieve the ultimate success with this team because we had put so much work and effort into it.”
Put simply, the pair had unfinished business.
The “ultimate success” is of course an AFL premiership. On Saturday afternoon, they will get their second chance after going oh-so close last September.
This week, Berry has pulled back the curtain on the emotional pain he felt after last year’s grand final heartbreak.
He has used that as fuel to better himself this season and help steer the club back to the big stage, so that he and his teammates might make amends.
The result has been a career-best campaign for the big-bodied midfielder, who says he has finally been able to give himself fully to the team and embrace the role that Fagan entrusts to him.
“It’s one of those seasons that’s been filled with resilience and even myself as an individual I’ve shown a fair bit of that, playing different roles and positions and being able to adapt,” says Berry.
“Early days it was a bit of, ‘Why me? Why am I playing on the wing and doing tagging roles?’ But I’ve done a fair bit of work with the psychologist (Anthony Klarica) around accepting what my role is.”
“It’s great to see someone that has played as an inside-mid through the start of his career to just embrace that wing role and play it so well,” says McCluggage of Berry.
“His ability to take a mark and his aerial presence is second-to-none for a midfielder so I feel like it really suits him.
“He’s got that ability to go inside or tag as well so he’s really valuable for our team in terms of the stuff he can do. I just love watching him go well.”
The irony is not lost on Berry that he and McCluggage have essentially swapped roles to the ones they first held on arriving at the club.
“Hughy has certainly come a long way from the skinny boy from Ballarat,” he jokes.
“You probably put it down to the physical attributes early. Hughy was quite skinny and light and was able to be really impactful on the wing, while I was a little bigger and stronger from my U18 year and was able to transition into that inside role straight away.
“It’s funny how things have flipped a bit. But as a winger you still get quite a bit of the contest and you’re around the stoppage a lot, so you’re basically another midfielder these days.”
McCluggage once joked he was “pretty scared” of Berry, who he labelled “one of the big dogs” when the two first crossed paths at the Rebels.
Now the smooth moving midfielder is one of the best ball winners and distributors in the business. As a pairing, they are two of the most reliable and hardworking players at the club.
Berry says he is most proud of the leader McCluggage has become in recent years.
“He’s always had really close friends but to become a really reliable and great mate to everyone on the list is something that I’ve been so impressed with.
“He’s the vice-captain for a reason. He does the right things on game day, he’s sensational under pressure and he plays for the team.
“I’m super proud of him and how he’s embracing trying to make this club great.”
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