Hawks’ rising star says ‘never doubt yourself’

JUST getting nominated among the rich crop of young AFL hopefuls in the running for the 2022 Rising Star Award has been quite some feat with the likes of Collingwood stars Nick Daicos and Jack Ginnivan, Jason Horne-Francis (Nth Melb), Nic Martin (Essendon), and Josh Rachele (Adelaide) on the list.

But, like everything else that’s come his way during a sensational rise from blessed obscurity at Poowong, little more than two years ago, you wouldn’t rule Hawthorn’s Jye Newcombe out of any contest.

The 20-year-old inside midfielder has played all 14 games this year, following on from a whirlwind seven games last season, after getting picked up in the mid-season draft, and creating headlines with an auspicious start against Sydney a week later, when he clocked up a record-breaking 14 tackles on debut.

Newcombe got his nomination after the Hawks’ Round 5 victory over premiership fancies, Geelong, this season grabbing a career-high 31 possessions in the process.

“His output is remarkable,” they said on the AFL website after the game, “for someone who wasn’t on a VFL list, let alone an AFL list at the start of last year.”

Speaking on Gippsland ABC radio during the week, Newcombe continues to stay well grounded, despite his success, not forgetting to thank his parents, Heather and 300-game Poowong legend, Clint, the secretary of the club, other coaches, his trade boss and locals for their encouragement.

There was also a special mention for “Naps”, the Box Hill Hawks GM Daniel Napoli for getting him down for a practice match in 2020 and a handful of games at the start of the 2021 season before being drafted.

“Dad played 300 games for Poowong, so just like it is for a lot of country families, football and sport has been in the forefront of most things,” said Jye.

“I was very thankful for that phone call and the chance to come down and try out and thankfully they liked what they saw.

“Obviously you have to work but you need a bit of luck along the way too and I’ll try and ride it for as long as I can.”

Newcombe spoke about driving down to Box Hill for training three days-a-week, while still doing the second year of a building apprenticeship, again praising his bosses for giving him the time to get to training and have a good shot at the big time.

Asked what message he had for other young players chasing their dreams, Newcombe said “never doubt yourself”.

“Never doubt yourself, I guess. There’s going to be opportunities presented and making the most of those opportunities along the way and sort of, I guess, never giving up on following your dream and making sure you’re working hard and putting things in place so that it can be a potential future for you. I think that’s the main thing.”

What is the Rising Star?

Established in 1993, the Rising Star is awarded to the best young player in the AFL.

Each week, a panel of experts nominates one eligible player across the competition based on their performance in that round or their body of work across the season so far.

At the end of the home-and-away season, the panel votes 5-4-3-2-1 for the young players adjudged to have had the best seasons, with the Rising Star being awarded to the player with the most votes.

The winner is traditionally announced following the final round of the regular season.

Rising Star criteria: Players must be 20 or younger and have played fewer than 10 games at the start of the season. Like the Brownlow Medal, players who are suspended are ineligible for the award, though they can still be nominated.

Past winners include Leongatha’s Dyson Heppell, the Essendon captain in 2011 at the beginning of a highly decorated career. Nathan Buckley in 1993, Adam Goodes in 1999, Nick Riewoldt in 2002, Joel Selwood in 2007 and Sam Walsh in 2019.

Jarryd Roughead was nominated in 2005, the year that Richmond’s Brett Deledio won the award, while injury and illness robbed Phillip Island’s Sam Docherty of a nomination for the award in his early years at Brisbane and Carlton.