Kieren’s blog

By Kieren Jack

I was introduced to AFL in Primary School when an Auskick clinic came to my school, West Pennant Hills Primary, and went through some drills with us. I was in year 5 and really enjoyed it; it was really good fun, we played some games and had a kick.

Later that year, our school signed up to the Paul Kelly Cup, a modified version of AFL, against kids from all other schools. My mates and I signed up and played and had a great time. We loved the skills aspect of it, it was free flowing and we all got turns playing in the forwards and kicking goals.

From there it sort of grew and to top it off, our school actually won the competition that year! We played the Grand Final on the SCG and that was a real buzz, we all absolutely loved it.

That’s what really drew me into AFL and the following year I signed up to my local club and then played for a few years for Pennant Hills Demons.

I guess that was my first introduction to the sport of AFL because I certainly didn’t know much about it growing up. I played rugby league, soccer, tennis and cricket – every other sport that was available, but there wasn’t a lot of exposure to AFL when I was growing up, it was really different back then.

I think what really helped was the Swans making the Grand Final in 1996. I probably started watching the game then without knowing too much about it and then all of a sudden the Paul Kelly Cup was introduced so that was the stepping stone for AFL in Sydney.

With my dad being a professional rugby league player, we were a big league family but now my youngest brother has been converted and was drafted by the Swans last year too.

I love having my brother Brandon at the Swans now. It’s a bit surreal, walking into training and seeing your little baby brother there.

We’re a bit different to a lot of other brothers growing up and playing sport. I started playing pretty late as a 12 year old, and he started even later, he was 15 when he first started playing AFL.

When he was that age, I was 22 and well and truly in the Swans so we didn’t get much of a chance to kick a footy together – he’d have a rugby league ball and pass it to me and I’d probably handball it back to him.

I think as a kid you want to have fun and that’s always what AFL was for me. You want to play footy with your mates and go to school and talk about it and then go home after school and, after your homework of course, kick a footy. My memories of AFL as a kid are just really enjoying myself and having a lot of fun!