Pipe dream becomes reality for Richmond plumber
Malcolm Conn
The Australian
June 22, 2007
MOST young AFL players arrive at the highest level with football's equivalent of the silver spoon. For Richmond's Jake King it was a copper pipe.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace still chuckles at stories of when King first arrived at Punt Road. There were times when players had to wake him on massage tables to train because of his early starts and tough days as a plumber.
A generation ago even the best football teams were full of plumbers, carpenters and other tradesmen making a living between training a couple of times a week and playing on Saturdays.
In this professional era, the preferred pathway of drafting the best young talent through elite under-aged competitions means many teenagers make the seamless transition to the big league, and sometimes six-figure salaries, without playing against men or doing a day's work.
Wallace said he was unconcerned taking a punt on a 23-year-old suburban footballer.
"They've come through the school of hard knocks and relish the chance to have a crack at it," Wallace said this week.
"Some guys who have everything handed to them on a platter think it's their divine right. These guys don't think it's a divine right and will fight for every opportunity that they get."
King reminds Wallace of St Kilda's relentless tagger Steven Baker. "He's super competitive, has good leg speed and more than adequate endurance," he said.
The emergence of King, a spirited and lively running defender, is one of the few pieces of good news from Punt Road during a lean season, which has seen the Tigers fail to win a match in the first 11 rounds, despite being competitive in most of them. Two points for a draw against Brisbane is all they have to show at the halfway point.
King believes he would still be playing for North Heidelberg in Melbourne's Diamond Valley league had his family and coach not pushed him to take the next step. After winning the local premiership in 2005, he was invited to do a pre-season at Essendon but the Bombers were concerned the leap from suburban football would be too great.
Andy Collins, the former Hawthorn premiership defender now coaching Richmond's VFL affiliate Coburg, had seen King take on much bigger opponents playing at centre half-back in that Diamond Valley grand final and liked his competitive nature.
That admiration only grew after Collins invited King to play with Coburg last season, where he won the club's best and fairest.
"He's a wonderful story, a beautiful human being," Collins said. "He was a ratbag who came from the wrong side of the fence. He was very street smart but struggled for academic motivation and the disciplines our society imposes on its youth.
"But he has passion, he's strong willed and he has great discipline when it comes to trying to achieve his goals."
Collins recalls being concerned matching King up against seasoned AFL players dropped back to, or returning from injury through, the VFL, wondering how a suburban footballer would cope.
"Jake would say 'don't worry, Andy, I don't know who he is'. He was more involved in local footy," Collins said.
Wallace believes the demands of a plumbing apprenticeship played a big part in King's failure to succeed with the Northern Knights' elite under-18 team in the TAC Cup, but King puts it far more bluntly. "Basically I was a smart arse," he said. "I wouldn't listen to anyone. I was growing up with my mates and I couldn't be told. I was doing my own thing."
King believes the worst trait of his game was a bad temper but says it has improved with the maturity of becoming a qualified plumber and having to oversee up to four men on some jobs. "There was a lot of responsibility on the job site. I had to start thinking about other people," he said.
That temper, according to Collins, has been channelled into making King one of the most competitive players in the AFL.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21946278-2722,00.html
