Richmond utility Jake King pushing the limits at Tigerland by: Michael Warner
From: Herald Sun
February 25, 2012 THE legend of Jake "The Push-Up" King was born at Anglesea in the pre-season of 2006.
King and his Richmond teammates were being pushed to breaking point during a gruelling training camp run by Victoria Police's Special Operations Group.
"It was a competition and the guys who got the most amount of push-ups and chin-ups as a team got rewarded," the firebrand recalled this week.
"No one knew what the actual reward was but it turned out to be a couple of chocolate bars, or something stupid.
"My group was the last one and we needed something like 260 push-ups to win and I was the last person. I ended up getting to 260, and the only reason we got there was because the other boys were going berserk - they wanted me to fail.
"Everyone was giving me hell but we got to where we needed. The boys then started cheering me on. They (the SOG) said there was a record of about 270-odd and the boys said: 'Get to 300'. I think I did 303 of them and then one muppet yells out: 'Let's get 400'.
"That was it. All the boys came over and picked me up and carried me around."
Word soon spread around the football world with video footage of the feat played at an AFL season launch.
Radio caller and North Melbourne president James Brayshaw started using "The Push-Up King" catchcry during his broadcasts and the story caught fire.
"The boys at the club started spruiking it and then JB and a couple of the boys on Triple M started pumping it up," King said.
Yesterday at Richmond's Punt Rd Oval headquarters, hundreds of footy fans gathered for a push-up world record attempt with the proceeds going to charity.
Asked if he liked the push-up moniker, King told the Herald Sun: "It's one of those things - if you get given a nickname, whether you like it or not, that's it, it sticks."
KING'S road to the AFL was far from standard.
At age 23 he was a qualified plumber running around for North Heidelberg in the Diamond Valley league.
By his own admission, he was a knockabout kid not suited to the TAC Cup recruiting system.
"There were days when I was working in Kinglake and you were on the job at 6.30am and there were hailstones and snow up on the mountains," he said.
"Those days weren't all that flash. It seems like it was a long, long time ago."
He played a few games with the Northern Knights but never made an impact.
But in 2005 he finally got his break playing in a premiership with North Heidelberg. A few AFL recruiters started to show interest.
He trained with Essendon a few times before being lured to play with Richmond's VFL affiliate, Coburg. The team was coached then by another back pocket player, former Hawk Andy Collins.
After a few impressive matches, King was invited to train at Punt Rd Oval.
But even then he wasn't confident an AFL career would happen.
"I remember one of my first training sessions where I was running out of the backline and Richo (Matthew Richardson) was leading up to the wing and I handballed it to the bloke beside me because I didn't want to kick it to him.
"I was sh---ing myself that he (Collins) was going to yell at me. But I soon worked out that he'd yell at me for everything anyway, so it didn't really matter."
King was rookie listed for season 2007 and made his senior debut in Round 4 against the Western Bulldogs.
He played hard as a genuine "back pocket plumber", but for years wasn't taken seriously by those outside the club. It didn't bother King.
"It really didn't. I had nothing to lose being 23 in your first year. To even get a chance, my goal was to play that one game," he said.
"So I had bugger all pressure on me."
He admits there were times when he thought the club would delist him and he'd be back on the tools somewhere at the crack of dawn.
"Plenty of times I did. I think I've been pretty lucky, but the club have stuck by me. They've had a fair bit of belief in me," he said.
Does he now feel like he belongs in the AFL?
"I still don't. It's still real bizarre, a wow factor, you know?" the 27-year-old said.
In the past two years King has slowly gained respect.
Last year he kicked 25 goals playing as the team's hard-nut defensive forward.
"Going up forward and having to apply the pressure and the game plan and style that Damien (Hardwick) and the other coaches want is great.
"We all know our roles and what we've got to do. But I never played up forward until I got to Richmond."
Collins, these days coaching West Adelaide in the SANFL, said King's name kept coming up when he was scouring Melbourne's northern suburbs in search of talent as Coburg's coach.
"He had an upbringing based on really strong family values, but at the same time it was a tough upbringing," Collins said yesterday.
"And so his values are very much based on mateship and loyalty. He'll dive on a hand grenade, and to quote Allan Jeans, he's a player who you want in the trenches with you at all times.
"He'll dive on that hand grenade because he's a mate of yours. You don't mess with him and his friends.
"I always loved that about him and I always believed in him as a footballer.
"He's extremely quick, very aggressive. Sometimes because he hasn't backed away from that, it may have got him in a bit of trouble - but as his old coach and as a friend of his, I'd back him any time.
"I get real enjoyment when I watch him. But it's not satisfaction, he's done it himself, he really has. All I did was identify him and make sure that he got on the journey that he has. I just love watching him play."
KING'S closest mates at the club include Jack Riewoldt, Shane Edwards and Daniel Connors, players who came through at the same time as him under former coach Terry Wallace.
"The new gym that we've got and the facilities are just amazing. To look back and think about the old rooms next door, to be honest I don't know how we trained in there," he says.
Asked if the current batch of Tiger cubs could one day win a premiership, King doesn't baulk. "Yeah. I can actually see it," he says.
"I can see it for a couple of reasons. And as soon as I go I reckon they'll be right up there.
"They've got a good bunch of young kids coming through. And if you look at the sides like Collingwood and Geelong, I think they average 25, 26 or even 27 years of age as a playing group.
"Where we are at the moment, I think we're an average age of 21. But as 21-year-olds the games that the club has got into the boys is actually pretty good. So the boys have had the experience.
"Going forward, they're going to be a really tight-knit group and they're going to come together as a mature-age group."
"Our first goal is to make finals and then once you're making finals you want to go the next goal.
"You've got Trent Cotchin, who has won the best and fairest. You've got Jack Riewoldt, who is 22 and already won a Coleman. Dustin Martin, who gets tagged every single week and he's nearly 20 and Bretty Deledio - he seems like he's been around for years, but he's only 24 and has won two best and fairests.
"The boys are coming together now and bonding so well. They're going to play so many games together.
"They spend every day together, they know everything about each other.
"It's going to be really exciting to watch and I'll be hanging on, don't worry about that. These boys are going to come along quicker than what you think."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-utility-jake-king-pushing-the-limits-at-tigerland/story-e6frf9jf-1226280984402
