The Demons had been practicing fast play kick-ins all week and early in the second quarter of the Round 10 clash with the Western Bulldogs, the time came to put it into practice.
It all started with Dean Terlich in the defensive goal square. He weighted his kick to Lynden Dunn on the 45. Dunn turned and found Jack Watts streaming through centre wing. Watts hit the ground running and laced-up a full chested Chris Dawes.
The Demons were “out the back”. In the modern era where man-on-man has been superseded with the 18-man press, when a team finds itself in this position a goal is usually inevitable. But as Dawes turned on his right foot and found Jack Fitzpatrick deep in the pocket, much of the advantage was lost.
The Demons went from a position where they should score, to a position with 200cm Jack Fitzpatrick with the ball in his hands, where they shouldn’t.
Unperturbed, Fitzpatrick followed his goal kicking routine to perfection, calmly slotting a spellbound check-side kick from the boundary, straight through the eye of a needle.
A man of his size shouldn’t be able to do that,surely? But to know Jack Fitzpatrick’s story is to know that a slight angle and a slippery ball is no match for his will power.
For Fitzpatrick’s entire football journey and possibly for as long as he can remember, he has had to battle debilitating illness; not something that goes hand in hand with professional sport.
He had his first “crash” as a result of glandular fever, when he was five years old. It developed into chronic fatigue and is still something he has to manage to this day. Then a little more than a year ago Fitzpatrick was even more fatigued than usual and found he had diabetes.
Fitzpatrick has never let his illness get in the way of living a normal life or his sport. Initially that meant never missing a kick-to-kick in the school yard at lunch time, despite the two weeks confined to bed that would follow, but as he grew older and wiser he began sitting out of training so he could give his best during games. In fact, despite being an elite junior, he rarely trained.
While his illness limited his body of work as a teenager trying to make it to the big time, now he is here, it’s somewhat of a blessing.
“I suppose I’ve got a bit of perspective now. Footy is a hard game and I hate losing as more than anything, but at the end of the day it is just a game,” he said.
“Now, it sounds a bit dramatic, but if I don’t inject myself four times a day I’ll be dead within a week.”
“Now, it sounds a bit dramatic, but if I don’t inject myself four times a day I’ll be dead within a week” – Jack Fitzpatrick
Dramatic it might be, but maybe not when you consider that at the time of diagnosis Fitzpatrick’s blood glucose level was 46 (normal is 5-7), and that was after he had been given emergency intravenous insulin.
“When you learn about it and the impact that diabetes can have, they say at about 30-35 your organs can fail and you can go into a coma. I don’t know how long I had left, but I reckon I was pretty lucky.”
“It was a bit weird, it all happened so quickly.”
In the days following a VFL game for the Casey Scorpions, Fitzpatrick found himself drinking water like a camel and urinating like a horse. By Tuesday he was “cooked”.
“I was absolutely knackered, I was absolutely stuffed. I weighed myself and since the game on Saturday I had lost 6kgs, I thought this isn’t right.”
A blood test proved conclusive and the Melbourne club doctor rushed Fitzpatrick straight to hospital.
“He said, ‘mate to be honest I think you’ve got diabetes’. I said ‘what’! Diabetes was something I associated with old unfit people who don’t usually look after themselves. Not something a bloke, who had just turned 21 at the time, who should be as fit as he is ever going to be.”
Since that point Fitzpatrick has learned to manage his diabetes just like he has chronic fatigue. He injects himself with insulin before every meal and once before going to bed. He tests his blood glucose level during every break in a game. Overall he has found the regimented and healthy lifestyle of an AFL football conducive to the strong habits required to manage diabetes.
Despite the stress of his diagnosis, he never thought it would impact his AFL career. He points to the influence of those who have gone before as the major reasons for his ability to overcome the hurdles en route to becoming an established AFL footballer.
The success of Dale Weightman with Richmond and Victoria is a major factor in this, and provided reassurance that diabetes wouldn’t impact his career. As a youngster it was Alistair Lynch’s poster on his wall of heroes. For a young man who at times struggled to get out of bed and felt a million miles away from the MCG, Lynch inspired Fitzpatrick to dream big and helped him out of some tough periods.
“I look up to Alistair Lynch just as much as I look up to anyone.”
“When you find out as a kid that Alistair Lynch, who was an absolute superstar of the game, you find out that he is going through the same sort of stuff as you are going through, of course it just gives you the belief that if he can do it anything is possible.”
During his time in the AIS-AFL Academy, Fitzpatrick was coached by Michael Voss, who put him in contact with Lynch, who has played a mentoring role to Fitzpatrick ever since.
“He was a massive inspiration and I can’t thank him enough, not only for taking time out of what is now a busy media career, but just showing me as a kid that it could be done. He probably doesn’t even realize the impact he had, had before he even met me to be honest.”
Given the influence both Lynch and Weightman have had over his journey, Fitzpatrick hopes to perform a similar role for the next generation.
“I have spoken about this with Neale Craig and at the moment my first preference is to establish myself as an AFL player, but eventually if I do, certainly a role as a mentor or an ambassador is something I would be looking to do further down the track.”
This year, his fourth at AFL level after being taken at Pick 50 in the 2009 National Draft, Fitzpatrick has found his feet at AFL level. In another dark season for the Demons, he has been a shining light.
He played 11 games after Round 10 and Mark Neeld’s sacking, to add to his career tally of three coming into 2013. Fitzpatrick reveled with the space and responsibility available in the absence of Mitch Clark and Chris Dawes for periods.
Given his slender 200cm build and electric speed (Fitzpatrick has one of the fastest repeat sprint time at draft camp) and he has caught the attention of more than the Demons faithful. The Triple M commentary team, most notably James Brayshaw, has adopted the “Big Fitta” – “I will certainly be happy for that to take off”.
Fitzpatrick has recently signed a new two-year contract to remain at the Demons until the end of 2015. General Manager of Football Operations, Josh Mahoney says given his run of illness and injury, there is big scope for improvement in the future.
“He’s taken the next step into the AFL, and has taken his opportunity through some injuries this year,” Mahoney said.
“Jack, being 200 cm tall and with the speed that he has, [he] will prove to be a very difficult match up for any opposition defenders in the future.”
Off the field Fitzpatrick is doing a business degree, majoring in management and marketing at Victoria University and he believes the balance provided by study and catching up with friends outside of football is crucial.
“It gets your mind out of the footy environment. When you are around your mates you don’t feel like that AFL footballer, or in that high-pressure environment. You can sit back and relax and you are the same person you were when you were in high school.”
Fitzpatrick on former school mate Majak Daw…
“Majak and I have been fairly close, he came to MacKillop College in year 9 and started playing for my local footy club, his first year was in D-Division.”
“He was big and athletic but he wasn’t up to the standard of even playing A-Division at local level.”
“We have been through a lot together along with another mate who was quite a good footballer, Joey Halloran, he really helped Majak out quite a lot. In terms of spending a lot of time with him.”
“Majak’s improvement continues the more he plays, he came from a long way back. His gradual improvement has been fantastic and it’s a credit to him, you see some of the things he can do and obviously he has got a pretty ripping body on him now. I am glad to see him reaping the rewards of all the hard work he is doing.”