He had to fight his way back into the team. Could this Cat be Geelong’s grand final fairytale?

2 weeks ago 13

Jhye Clark was only two months from joining Geelong when they won the 2022 premiership – but neither of them knew that at the time.

It took Gold Coast salary dumping Jack Bowes only weeks later in the trade period, with pick eight (used on Clark) thrown in as a sweetener, for the then-teenager to graduate from the Geelong Falcons to the Geelong Cats.

Jhye Clark (left) celebrates Geelong’s preliminary final win over Hawthorn with Patrick Dangerfield.

But Clark’s journey to last week’s preliminary final – and hopefully Saturday’s grand final against reigning premiers Brisbane – was atypical for a top-10 selection.

Only Elijah Tsatas (16) has played fewer games than Clark’s 25 among the seven future stars picked before him, including Aaron Cadman (59), 2024 Norm Smith medallist Will Ashcroft (57), Harry Sheezel (67), George Wardlaw (39), Bailey Humphrey (63) and Cam Mackenzie (46).

One match as the substitute in his debut season was followed by 15 last year, but it has been a challenging third campaign for the 21-year-old midfielder.

After being dropped for a second time this season, Clark returned to the VFL and suffered a concussion. He missed a week, then averaged 27 disposals in his next three games at second-tier level, only to sustain another concussion.

“The first one wasn’t too bad, and then about a month later, I had a bit of a scary one,” Clark told this masthead. “I couldn’t remember anything [from that game] – and I still can’t. I had three or four weeks off after that.”

Another strong run of form won Clark his senior spot back for round 22 against Essendon, but he was axed immediately. It was obvious a long way out that Geelong were finals-bound, but the VFL Cats fell short.

That meant the Queenscliff product’s only path back to the AFL in September was to do it at training. He set about convincing the coaches that he deserved another shot, with assistant coach Steven King – Melbourne’s new senior coach – pushing Clark’s case to Chris Scott.

Clark forced his way in for Geelong’s qualifying final win over Brisbane, as the substitute again, but only snuck onto the MCG for the last few minutes.

Clark has overcome two concussions this year and being dropped three times.

His next opportunity a fortnight later, with a grand final spot on the line against Hawthorn, came far earlier. Star defender Tom Stewart’s concussion just before quarter-time thrust Clark into action – and with major responsibility.

Clark responded with 14 disposals and four clearances, prompting Scott to opine post-match that they might look back on his preliminary final performance as “a bit of an inflection point for Jhye”.

“He trained the house down ... and when the chance popped up a couple of weeks ago, he got a couple of minutes,” Scott said.

“But [in the preliminary final], when he got his chance early, he played – without being overconfident about it – the way we thought he would play, which is high praise indeed because that’s a big ask, off the amount of footy that he’s had in the last probably six weeks.

“[Development coach] Nigel Lappin does a great job with those guys, in particular. But this is the old ‘he-trained-his-way-into-the-team’ situation.”

Nothing that happened on Friday night, including the kind words that flowed afterwards, were enough to make Clark feel assured about keeping his spot for the grand final.

His hard-earned path to the Cats’ senior side has taught him that.

“You have some tough times when you’re jealous you’re not playing, but you’ve got to snap out of that mindset really quickly, and just be happy for the boys who are playing,” Clark said.

“We’re in the grand final, so we’re top two in the comp, and you’ve got to keep fighting for your spot. There are no guarantees. There are so many young boys pushing for a spot, and hopefully Rhys [Stanley] comes back in. I’ll be happy however it pans out.”

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