Queenscliff’s Jayden McHenry kicks four goals after two-year break from footy

Two years ago a GFNL premiership player thought his career was done after a season-ending knee injury. However, everything would change one night back in January.

Jayden McHenry was a premiership defender before becoming a forward at Ocean Grove. Picture: Stephen Harman

Jayden McHenry was done with footy.

Just over two years ago, the local real estate agent and Leopold premiership defender was early into his second season in a new role forward of the ball with Ocean Grove.

Playing against Geelong Amateur at Shell Rd on April 22, McHenry had led out, scooped up the leather but was tackled as he attempted to change direction.

“It was a bit of an awkward pivot and it just snapped straight away, I heard it rupture, heard the click straight away,” McHenry told this masthead on Monday night.

It was a swift change in fortunes after McHenry had just slotted his first major for the day on the goal line against the Ammos.

Jayden McHenry chases the ball against Barwon Heads in 2022.

“It was touched and I carried on like it was a goal, and they called it a goal,” the 30-year-old recalled.

“The next play I did my ACL so there was a bit of karma there.”

With three teammates sidelined with broken ribs, a cut head and a nasty KO, the Grubbers were forced to plonk McHenry in the goalsquare to provide some kind of option.

However, after turning around, his knee completely buckled.

“I pretty well crawled off the ground, straight away I knew it was bad and it blew up like a balloon,” he said.

“I had to go to a friend’s 30th birthday the next day and her partner’s a doctor and he did the knee test on me and he goes: ‘Yeah, I think it’s your ACL’.”

Juggling footy with Saturday work as a real estate agent, and knowing he’d tasted the ultimate success with a premiership with Leopold in 2016, McHenry felt like perhaps it was a sign he should move on.

McHenry gets airborne against Torquay in 2022.

“So that was the end of it, I didn’t really think about playing after that. Footy’s done for me,” he said.

“There wasn’t really that burning desire to come back from it.”

Opting to let his ACL heal naturally rather than have surgery, McHenry rehabbed the knee diligently for three months to ensure physical longevity whether it be a round of golf or a jog.

However, a casual run one night in January this year provided a further twist in his sporting life.

The Ocean Grove resident and his family would traditionally head to Point Lonsdale for three weeks during the January holidays.

Strapping on the runners one evening, he noticed the Coutas training at a local oval.

“I noticed my brother was out there, so I went over and I thought: ‘Maybe I’ll just have a kick instead of going for a run’,” he said.

“Have a kick and see if I enjoyed having a kick and meeting new people, it sort of just evolved from there.”

He made a beeline for senior coach Heath Jamieson, then preparing for his second season in charge of the young BFNL outfit.

“I went up to ‘Jamo’ who I know because I used to play for Leopold and he used to coach St Joseph’s, so we had the ultimate rivalry,” he said.

Queenscliff coach Heath Jamieson speaks to his charges at quarter time against Geelong Amateur. Picture: Alan Barber

“I said: ‘Jamo, do you mind if I just jump in and have a kick with boys?’ And he said: ‘Go for it mate’.”

This was where McHenry’s sensible rehab came to the fore.

“I took it really easy, ran some laps and did some straight line running and kicking and just loved it,” he said.

From there, over the coming months, McHenry would slowly build up his training loads to the point where by April this year he was feeling “fantastic and strong” with no apparent niggles.

With McHenry going to games to watch his partner play netball for the Coutas, he began to entertain the idea of a comeback.

“Which surprised me as I hadn’t had surgery, I’m just waiting for it to buckle, really,” he said.

“Just a couple of weeks ago where I thought: ‘Well maybe I bloody can (play) because I feel good at training and it’s not sore at all.

“I thought it would be cool to play with my brother, play with my brother in law, Jonty Rush.”

However, McHenry said there had been zero pressure from the club to play, nobody in his ear about a return.

“Which is the best thing about it,” he said.

“They were just happy for me to be there having a kick and the boys were really welcoming.

“In the end, I just thought bugger it, I went to see the physio and we did the tests and he said: ‘You’ve done amazing with the test, you’re good to go if you want to’.

“I thought: ‘Well bloody hell, maybe we do’.”

McHenry celebrates a goal against Geelong Amateur on Saturday at the Couta Bowl. Picture: Alan Barber

After McHenry got the tick of approval from his physio last week, and knew he was set to make his return against, in a curious twist of fate, the unbeaten Geelong Amateur, that’s when the nerves began to settle in “big time”.

“I was wondering if my body was going to hold up ... be able to get through a game because it had been a couple of years,” he said.

“I didn’t think I was going to play footy again.”

However, McHenry would have an immediate impact, kicking the first two goals of the game, take a towering pack mark in the final term and finish with four majors, as the Coutas knocked off the league leaders by a straight kick.

It was nothing short of a fairytale return for McHenry, who got an MRI on Monday night with positive results.

“It was probably one of the most fun games of football I’ve ever played in, really,” he said.

“It was great fun ... I didn’t think it was going to be that good.

“I have probably missed it a little bit, the social aspect and the connection to a club.”

Originally published as Queenscliff’s Jayden McHenry kicks four goals after two-year break from footy