Jack Redpath: building a Bulldog

[bornadog]

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This time last year Jack Redpath was standing in the Simonds Stadium goal square in the icy rain, Harry Taylor walking towards him, his AFL debut just a few nervous breaths away. "Geez," he wondered, "How'd I get here?"
It's a good question, with an even better answer.
Modern footy doesn't generally do stories like Redpath's, the fourth of six country kids who's never known his father, left school at 16, didn't play TAC Cup and was a qualified carpenter and veteran of two knee reconstructions when the Western Bulldogs rookie-listed him straight from Kyneton on his 21st birthday.


"I didn't mind it, it was a good life," he says of the world he left behind. "I worked hard, I loved what I did, I was reasonably good at it I thought. And I played footy for a bit of fun."
Reflecting on how he came to be in a very different job and having more fun than ever, Redpath starts and ends with his mother, Sam. He's in awe of her, the example she set, all that she's done for her kids.
Sam Redpath's first three children were born in an on-again off-again relationship that was over by the time baby Jack, No.4, arrived. The Redpaths were on their own for a few years, then she married, had two more daughters and they moved from Leongatha to Kyneton.
"It didn't turn out well," Sam says with a laugh of resignation. "I've been on my own ever since."
Redpath remembers his mum working at the fee-paying school she somehow managed to send them to, then going back to college and emerging as a supervisor at a juvenile justice centre. "She just busts her arse six days a week, always has," he says. "We've always had everything."

This quality runs through the family, and clearly starts at the top. "Nobody changes anything unless they've got a work ethic," Sam says. "I've always said to the kids, 'There's no such word as can't. You can have whatever you want in this life if you work hard'."

The oldest of the clan, Beau, is 32 and using his cabinet-making skills to do form work in the mines in Western Australia. Hayley is 28 and a police force detective, 26-year-old Jesse has a bricklaying business. Ruby and Lily are 19 and 18 and both did well at school. Ruby is doing nursing, Lily's having a gap year.
"She's a bit of a wild one, got the dyed purple hair," Redpath says of his youngest sibling, with obvious affection. He adds that she's working in a local cafe "and every time I'm home she seems to have more money than me".
His own earnings started early. At 12 he was working out the back of a butcher shop, getting called "CK" for "Clean-up Kid", pocketing $120 a week. He'd always wanted to do whatever Jesse did, so had a crack at bricklaying but found his size (he's now 194 centimetres and 99 kilograms) an impediment. "I know you're not enjoying school, I'm happy for you to go and work," his mum told him. Within three days of finishing year 9 a nail bag hung from his waist.

"I was never going to be one for uni," he says. "The best way of learning for me is by hand."
He was playing senior footy for Kyneton at 16 but a few weeks' training with Bendigo Pioneers betrayed that the TAC Cup wasn't the right fit for a boy already living in a man's world. "I loved it, but it just didn't click for me. I didn't know anyone, so I just decided to focus on finishing my apprenticeship."

His boss was Neville Massina, a country footy legend with abundant connections. He steered Redpath to Bendigo's VFL team, structured his work around training, took him for extra sessions running the Woodend golf course hill on Saturday mornings. "He loved his footy and he'd obviously seen something in me."
He'd played a dozen VFL games in 2009 and was standing James Podsiadly in his first outing as a backman when someone landed on his left leg. He'd never been injured, let alone felt such pain.
Shannon Grant was coaching Bendigo when he was ready to resume the next season and told Redpath to have a game at Kyneton and he'd be straight back in. In the second quarter he was tackled on the wing and heard a massive "pop".

"I was absolutely shattered." The questions and condolences soon wore thin; football was teasing him, and he was of a mind to give it a miss.
Through both "recos" Massina was amazing, paying a carpenter who initially couldn't work, encouraging him that all wasn't lost. He'd shown enough before the first injury to be invited to pre-draft screening, which planted a seed that maybe, with a change of luck, he could make it.
With Kyneton getting belted on a weekly basis, he made a mid-season comeback and kicked 5.8 against Sandhurst. "Maybe I can still play ... "

More eye-catching performances followed and with former Hawk and Kangaroo Nathan Thompson, who was playing for Kyneton, a plan was crafted to be back in the VFL the following year. In December 2011, as he drove home from a Bendigo pre-season session, the Bulldogs called.
"My 21st party was that weekend. I trained with the Dogs on the Friday, Saturday didn't have a beer, just watched the boys drink them all. They were back at my brother's till all hours and I was in bed at Mum's."
Mother and son were having coffee on the morning of his birthday, watching the rookie draft online, when his name bobbed up at pick 62. "Mum screamed a bit."

He'd arrived at an unlikely destination, but the road ahead remained pot-holed. "It didn't go to plan straight away," Redpath says of an AFL career that initially stagnated in the Williamstown reserves, where in round 14 of his first season he landed from a marking contest and snapped his forearm.
"Oh no, how's this even happened?" was his first thought. Those that followed were dark. "I looked at it, bent over backwards, and thought, 'I'm never coming back. I'm gunna lose my arm!'"

In the rooms, Rohan Smith played the veteran pragmatist. "It's just an arm," he told Redpath. "It's not over."
The following year Brendan McCartney told him he was on the cusp of senior selection, then the next week at training he twisted his knee. After clean-up surgery, the "Clean-up Kid" hasn't missed a game in more than a season-and-a-half since.
The unconventional background has never fuelled apprehension. Redpath reckons he felt like an 18-year-old when he arrived at Whitten Oval, and with a strong body and willing mind that's "getting the hang" of the game at its peak, he still feels younger than 24.

He remembers list manager Jason McCartney asking in that first interview with the Dogs what his father did, and he gave the answer he tells anyone without qualm or regret. "I never met my old man, and I've never really asked. I had everything I could wish for. It doesn't bother me one bit."
Mixing with adults fostered an ease in any company. Redpath is one of the most popular figures at his club, and hit it off with teammates young and old from day one. "I get to know people pretty quick and can make friends."

On the bye weekend he went home and did some work with a "chippy" mate who's gone out on his own doing renovations. His tool bag is still in the back of his car, his tools ready to go in a lock-up box at home. He still loves the sense of achievement he felt as an apprentice, when the first big, architect-designed house he worked on rose out of the ground.
"When you're building a house it doesn't look like much, then the plaster's done, you do the doors, all the door furniture ... then you see it finished, you think, 'We did that'."
It could be a metaphor for his unlikely football career, except Redpath knows he's still in the framework stage, and there's plenty of work to be done. He had a great pre-season, but was dropped after round one and only returned against Carlton three months later.

"The weekend [against Gold Coast] is probably the best game I've played, up in the heat, I can take a lot of confidence out of that." Coach Luke Beveridge loves his spirit; the speed over 20 metres and power forward's hands make him a tantalising work in progress.
Sam Redpath remembers that when her "big, sensitive giant" started secondary school, a teacher had her students write down what they wanted to do with their lives. The time capsule was revisited after year 12, and found its way to one of his sisters a couple of years after Redpath had left school.
"Jack's ambition was to be a carpenter and play AFL football," Sam says. "It's funny how sometimes things just work out."

[bornadog]

Great article on Jack and what he has been through to become an AFL player.

[LostDoggy]

Good story, comes across as a cracking lad. Hope he does well down there today.

[Hotdog60]

You can't help but wish all the best for him.

I hope it all clicks into place and has a long successful career at the Dogs. To often in the past we have had to rely on one key target. What would it feel like having the opposition have to guard two keys and not being able to double or triple up in our forward line.

[Bulldog4life]

I like Jack Redpath even more now,

[Twodogs]

I love all those footy club names mentioned in the article. Kyneton(best fish and chip shop in the world in Kyneton) Leongatha (gave us Steve Wallis ) Golden Square (easily the best club in Bendigo)


Except Sandhirst. Good on you Jack for destroying them on your comeback.

[boydogs]

"The weekend [against Gold Coast] is probably the best game I've played, up in the heat, I can take a lot of confidence out of that."

Love this. He's building confidence. The flaw in his game is lack of movement, the more confidence he gets the more he will present and contest

Against Carlton & Gold Coast it was noticeable he started to take marks outside of the forward 50, he's not just sitting in the goalsquare waiting for it to be kicked on his head

[ledge]

Loved the guy the minute I walked past him at his first family bulldog day he was massive and it was natural. None of this building him up stuff from a rake..
Love the nickname the widow maker when he tackles he tackles hard would hate to have him coming at me.
We started to look for him more against GC and I think he delivered well.
If we deliver properly he will be hard to stop.

[Scorlibo]

What a great article. I really hope Jack can nail down a spot in the best 22.

[josie]

Great article from The Age.

Redpath is showing a burning desire to do his absolute best and I'm loving his efforts.

I was disappointed when he decided not to go for goal deep in last quarter against Cats. Then I thought - hang on he has only played a handful of games !! Also Grant almost took that mark (mind you his set shot kicking is shocking so goodness knows what would have happened if he had taken it). I think Redpath is a smart guy who is still learning his forward craft so I look forward to our version of the twin towers for a while, and hoping it is successful.

There were times in Cat's game when Redpath made space, however our delivery into F50 was poor.

I really hope he makes it too and really love the big tackles he lays. I was in cheer squad bay when he made a big tackle in Q3 and the collective OOOH from those around me was very noticeable.

GO BIG RED !!