Jackson Macrae's boltBy Callum Twomey
Mon 29 Oct, 2012
Jackson Macrae fires off a handball in the TAC Cup Grand Final. Picture: AFL MediaJACKSON Macrae twists, turns, baulks, spins, sidesteps and does normal things in slightly different ways. He chips and lobs kicks to teammates, dribbles and snaps goals, and gets away from tacklers even when it looks like he's about to be caught.
He searches for options others wouldn't consider, but he harasses and chases when he doesn't have the ball, and knows when to fly for an overhead mark and when to stand and wait for the spills.
And then there's the thing that makes all this possible: Macrae gets lots of the ball. Lots. When he doesn't have it, he's either calling for it, or working out how to get it next.
"I always stay alert," he tells AFL.com.au. "It can be 100 metres away but you can always set yourself up for the next contest and be ready for it."
It's the main, but not the only, trait that has made Macrae likely to be one of the first six, eight or 10 names read out at next month's NAB AFL Draft.
But it wasn't so long ago that Macrae was watching games wondering what it would take for him to actually be out there, let alone think about which of the 17 clubs to interview him will be the one he soon calls home.
Last year Macrae was a member of the Oakleigh Chargers' development squad. He trained there once a week throughout the season, but didn't get picked for a game. He felt a part of the Chargers but apart from them as well, frustrated at seeing some players get selected when he thought he was ahead of them.
When they made the Grand Final, only to be overrun in the final term by the Sandringham Dragons, Macrae was watching online while on holiday, thinking of how he could help and what he might have done in their position.
"Training with all the boys and seeing how pumped they were for all of the finals last year, there was just that thought that 'I want to be a part of it' and 'I want to play at Etihad as well'," Macrae said. "That really drove me this year."
The 18-year-old did a lot more playing than watching this year. In total he lined up for 33 games, split across his school team Carey Grammar, the Chargers, and Vic Metro at the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships. Some other practice and representative fixtures were nestled in between regular duties, too.
His season finished with the final kick of the TAC Cup season, which wobbled through for the 'golden point' to hand the Chargers the premiership in overtime. A week after his younger brother Finlay won best-on-ground honours in his own under-10s Kew Rovers Grand Final, Macrae repeated the feat for the Chargers. "I think I've got him covered," Macrae said.
Although Macrae surprised many this season, including himself, his rise actually began at the start of last year at Carey. Then, under coach and two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King, Macrae was shifted to the half-back flank.
With every run down the wing, shimmy and left-foot pass, Macrae started catching the attention of people who mattered.
"To me," says his dad David Macrae, "that was Jack's real breakout year. It gave him the flexibility to back himself and it gave him a level of confidence he might not quite have had before."
Macrae had not been completely off the map before then. He had already played at state level as an under-12, alongside other likely top-10 picks Lachie Whitfield, Jonathan O'Rourke, Ollie Wines and Joe Daniher (he even stumbled across the team photo last week.) He made the squad of 50 in Vic Metro's under-15s and 16s programs before being cut as the teams were trimmed.
But he had a few areas to address. One was his kicking. Before this year, Macrae used to get a lot of the ball but wasn't too damaging. He worked at it, becoming a reliable kick.
"I think over short distances I'm pretty effective. Obviously over longer distance my kicking and penetration is an area I want to improve and really getting to that consistent 50-55 metre kicking," he says.
"I think with my run and carry I break open the game but I'd really like to add that extra string to my bow with my kicking distance, so it's something I'm working."
The other was his second and third efforts, a staple of his game now but not always a part of it. He improved them, and then when he heard Justin Wenke was named coach at Oakleigh this year, he knew an opportunity was there if he wanted it.
Wenke had coached Macrae as a 13-year-old in a Yarra Valley representative team, and followed his path through his teenage years.
"When Justin was appointed, Jack felt it would be good because Justin already knew him and rated him," David says. "It wasn't as much about impressing, but just playing good footy."
Macrae played without any inhibitions. He was one of only three players to play all five games for Vic Metro, and averaged nearly 20 disposals for them at 76 per cent efficiency. Against Tasmania, as a half-forward, he bobbed up with six goals. In Oakleigh's four-game finals series he averaged 28 disposals, steering them towards the flag.
Macrae isn't the type to get overexcited. His dad describes him as not the "gregarious, out-there guy", instead getting tight with a few friends, getting to know them well, and then coming out of himself a little bit more.
It's been the way with his football, too. Now he's got comfortable, things have clicked.
"The first goal this year was to make the Oakleigh squad and after I did that, it was to play round one. And then it was to make the Vic Metro team and the rest of it just came," Macrae said.
"On the way I've had to reset my goals but I've pretty much achieved all of them. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out."
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