A Jolly fine career

This article appeared in SEN Inside Football's July Issue. Subscribe today!

Ruckman Darren Jolly built a superb two-premiership resume at three AFL clubs, before famously joining the building game. David Rhys-Jones caught up with him for a chat about his career and life in footy.

RHYS: Life has been good to you after footy.
JOLLY: Yeah, I can’t complain. It’s certainly been an interesting journey post footy.

RHYS: The Block is a huge rating show. How much of a difference has it made to your business and your life?
JOLLY: Doing The Block has been an amazing experience for us, not only personally, but for business as well. Our business has taken off. After footy I thought, what will we do now? There was a bit of renovation and my interest was going to be with building, but not knowing how to get going we did The Block and that was a great kick-start. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever done. But we met some great people, suppliers and tradespeople who we have used in our business going forward.
RHYS: You said once that being in Sydney was great because nobody recognised you. With the exposure on national TV with The Block, do you get recognised more in the street than any time when you were a footballer?
JOLLY: Absolutely. We get recognised more for being on the show than I did playing footy. My wife gets recognised a lot more than I do.

RHYS: During your time at Sydney and Collingwood did you put the carpentry and building work on hold?
JOLLY: Well, I was a cabinet-maker before footy in Ballarat. I did three-and-a-half years of an apprenticeship then played footy and let it go for a long time. For the last five years of footy when I got back to Melbourne and played with Collingwood I thought I really have to knuckle down here and decide what I am doing after footy. I decided to get into building because it was my passion. Growing up on a farm helped because we used to build everything back then. On days off I went and worked with a mate of mine who is a builder and I would get on the tools with him. Not only was it a great experience but it was also my recovery. Getting the toolbag on, climbing up and down ladders, was a great movement for me and helped take my mind off the game and get my body moving for next week.

RHYS: It was a different time when I played and you had a job during the week, but it gave you an outlet.
JOLLY: You know that footy is so consuming these days and so professional. You have got to be thinking about it every second of the day. Being on the tools and having a laugh with the boys could take my mind off things.

RHYS: You were originally from Lexton. That was a club coached by Tony Lockett’s dad, Howard.
JOLLY: That was a long time before me.

RHYS: You came via North Ballarat Rebels, but you had been out of the Under 18 system for a year when chosen as a rookie by Melbourne. Did you play for North Ballarat that year in 2000?
JOLLY: My first year for the Rebels was in 1997 and I got picked to play for the first six games of the year. Greg Lamb was the coach and I sat on the bench and never got a go. I thought this is not enjoyable so I went back and played the last half of the year with my mates in the senior team at Lexton. I was enjoying that and playing some good footy. North Ballarat asked me back and I went and played the rest of the year with the Rebels and then played with the Roosters and got rookie-listed from there. I played alongside Peter Somerville, Stephen Jurica and Ross Funcke.

RHYS: You had doubts on pursuing a football career because you were an apprentice joiner and did not want to jeopardise your future. Even then it seems you were well aware that footy doesn’t last forever.
JOLLY: Yes, looking back now it would have been a stupid decision if I continued to say no. Melbourne invited me to come down for six weeks for a rookie try-out camp. At the end of that six weeks they were going to pick from that. I was embedded in a job and I knew of mates who had a run for other clubs then came back and didn’t have a job to go to. I weighed it up and thought if I didn’t make it, I have lost my job. So I said no to the six weeks and then a couple of days before the draft Melbourne asked me to come down for a training run and a meeting. I got the day off work and my old man drove me down. And they picked me from that.

RHYS: Is it harder for the bigger types? Ruckmen play their best footy at about 25 or 26 but the way the draft is structured now they have to wait for three or four years.
JOLLY: I do think with the speed of the game now you need to be more of an athlete to play the game, rather than a big bulky brute who just crashes packs. You need more strings to your bow and everyone coming out of Under 18s is skinny, young and it takes a long time to develop your body and fill in. To play in the ruck you have to get strong to push against the likes of Shane Mumford and Aaron Sandilands and Todd Goldstein who have built up that strength and weight over time. It takes until you are 26 or 27 to master the skills of ruckwork and become useful.

RHYS: You were strong in the upper body as a kid so you could compete with older ruckmen.
JOLLY: When I started I was only 93kg and could only lift 90 kilos on the bench. I played the last six or seven years at 108kg and could lift 150 kilos. So it takes a long time to build up that muscle mass to compete against the big guys.

RHYS: You were elevated to the Melbourne senior list at the start of 2001 and played four of the first six senior games off the bench before spending the rest of the year in the reserves.
JOLLY: I think Troy Simmonds broke his ankle in a practice match and I took his spot on the list. I never expected to play any senior games that year. I was super rapt about getting four games in the first year. I think I played 17 and 18 in the next two years and only seven in my last year at Melbourne. That’s when I thought I needed more out of my footy. Unfortunately I thought my opportunities at Melbourne weren’t going to be great because Jeff White was playing unbelievable footy at the time so I had to make a decision. That’s why I asked to be traded.

RHYS: In 48 games at Melbourne you only once played all four quarters. You said later that in a game when Jeff White was injured early you had to ruck for the rest of the day and you weren’t used to it.
JOLLY: That was a game against West Coast at the MCG and I would only come on in the last five or six minutes of the quarter so he was rucking a lot of the game. I think he got injured in the second quarter and I had to run out the rest of the game and I couldn’t. I was completely knackered.

RHYS: You were traded to the Swans. How did all that come about? Which other clubs were options?
JOLLY: I sat down with Danny Corcoran and said I wasn’t getting opportunities and he understood. He was happy to entertain the idea and Sydney was one of the first we spoke to, and to Carlton as well. I went over to David Parkin’s house and he put on a big spread and had all the guys there. I went to Sydney for a day trip and just fell in love with it—great facilities and having a fresh start and not reading about footy every day.

RHYS: Some in the media questioned whether Sydney had given up too much (pick 15) to get you. And that they had gone for you after missing out on Brad Ottens. Did you read all that at the time, and did it add to your determination to succeed?
JOLLY: I didn’t pay attention to that, I wouldn’t have had a clue and that’s the first I’ve heard of it. I just thought it was a new environment and I could have a real crack at it. Roosy sat me down in the first week and said I don’t care if you make mistakes, I just want you to have a real crack, and give 100 per cent effort. I will give you all the confidence, and to me as a young kid hearing that from a senior coach, the weight lifted off my shoulders and I thought I can just go and play on instinct.

RHYS: Apparently Paul Roos looked through all the previous No.15 draft picks and reckoned only one in the past decade (Scott Camporeale) had done anything significant and he decided it was better to go for someone like you who was already in the system.
JOLLY: I wasn’t aware of that.

RHYS: Playing as second ruck to Jason Ball you had a fine year capped by a premiership medal.
JOLLY: We had a great time and formed a good combination. I really enjoyed it under Bally and learned a lot. And having a ruck coach like Steve Taubert was fantastic. To play in a premiership was a dream come true.

RHYS: With Ball retiring after the premiership win, you shouldered the ruckwork and had a good year.
JOLLY: With the confidence Roosy gave me, he gave confidence to a lot of other players to go out and play. When Ball left it gave me the chance to stamp my ability on the game.

RHYS: There was doubt over your availability for the 2006 Grand Final as you awaited the birth of your first child, but you played in the end and had trouble sticking with Eagle Dean Cox. How draining was that week?
JOLLY: You’ve got kids and you know what it’s like. I’ve never watched the 2006 game since then. The only thing I remember about 2006 is the birth of our first child. The beat-up in the media about how I was going to miss the game was complete bullshit. I never said that at all and the media just ran with it. It made it harder because as soon as I got to the airport there were cameras everywhere. I missed the parade because I was asleep. It was a tough week but really rewarding because we had our first daughter at half past 12 on the Friday morning and I didn’t leave the hospital till 3. I was on an 8 o’clock flight, had some breaky and went to bed. The boys had flown out on the Thursday. I played like a dog and that was probably the worst game of my career. I was so tired and the preparation was horrendous. But at the same time I had a newborn baby waiting for me back home.

RHYS: You said in an interview in 2009 that your favourite opponent was Dean Cox “because he always beats me”.
JOLLY: Yeah, for a long time he was the benchmark. Any player would love playing against the best player in the league and Coxy was the best. He tore me a new one in a lot of games and taught me the art of ruckwork and positioning around the ground. He probably had my number until I had the confidence to play off him and move forward and make him accountable. He had it all. He could jump, he was big bodied, and he could run, he was getting 25 possessions per game. He had the art of ruckwork nailed and was very dominant in that era. Then bloody Sandilands came along!

RHYS: Were you surprised when the Swans recruited Peter Everitt. How did the two of you go about sharing the ruckwork?
JOLLY: I wasn’t surprised at all. I had played against “Spida” at Hawthorn and he was a great ruckman. My time with him at Sydney was enjoyable and we really worked well with each other. We fed off each other’s ideas and it was super competitive, which helped on game day. Anything we did at training made us better players on game day.

RHYS: It’s never easy to have a young family and being interstate away from the family support. Sydney gave you a four-year contract which was extremely unusual at the time. That was a strong vote of confidence.
JOLLY: It was, and important for any player to have security away from home with a young family up there. I thought I repaid that faith and to this day I still hold Sydney close to my heart and I will always support them for the rest of my life.

RHYS: You developed into one of the AFL’s best ruckmen, regularly finishing top 10 in the best and fairest. As Everitt neared the end of his career you assumed even more responsibility and did a lot of coaching of the young rucks at the club. Did that build an interest in specialist coaching?
JOLLY: Not really, I never had ambitions to be a ruck coach away from footy. I always thought that when I finished footy I would close that chapter and open up something else. That’s why I got into building.

RHYS: In 2010 you returned to Victoria via a trade to Collingwood and you were a crucial element in taking the Magpie side to a higher level. How did that trade come about?
JOLLY: For all of 2009 after my wife had our second child she developed postnatal depression. Given that we were in Sydney and our family and friends back in Melbourne, it was hard on her. We had to make the tough decision to come home. Roosy and the Swans knew what we were going through. I told Roosy there was a possibility we would have to go home. They went after Mark Seaby, who they got, and we had a meeting with Collingwood and they did the deal. I was grateful for that and our family and friends got my wife through it. She’s good now.

RHYS: There’s a lot of talk about loyalty but people don’t understand that things do happen and you have to make decisions.
JOLLY: Every player wants to be a one-club player but footy is not the be-all and end-all. There’s bigger things like family and friends, and if circumstances come up that you can’t control, footy has to take a back seat.

RHYS: You added the 2010 premiership to the one you scored at Sydney. How did they differ?
JOLLY: Everyone asks that. The 2005 one was my first AFL Grand Final. Every single training run, every corkie I had received since eight years old, paid off. Every kid dreams of that. It was emotional. The Collingwood one was a huge juggernaut. In the 2010 replay after we realised we had the game won at three-quarter time it was enjoyable in the last quarter and we really got to soak it up. For 30 minutes to know you have got a Grand Final won it was a pretty special time. And the celebrations after the game with the huge supporter base were massive.

RHYS: What are your memories of those 2010 Grand Finals?
JOLLY: I have two memories of the first one, getting the perfect jump at the centre bounce at the start and I pushed forward and kicked the first goal in 30 seconds. I thought jeez, I am on here. The other memory was that I was not far from Lenny Hayes when he kicked it into the forward line and just saw the ball bouncing in front of Milne and thinking the game’s over—we’ve lost it here, he’s going to kick a goal. It bounced right, so the footy gods were looking down on us that day. Because we didn’t have to do the official Grand Final duties during the week, we trained like it was just another week. We knew if we played the way we could, we would win.

RHYS: Injuries meant your workload had to be carefully managed in 2011 and 2012, but in 2013 you played only nine games and were delisted at season’s end. That all seemed a bit messy. Had you run your race?
JOLLY: No, I was under the impression I would get another year with the club. I played the first half of 2013 and was playing some good footy. Jarrod Witts tackled me from behind at training before the mid-season break and I buggered up my knee. I came back to the twos for the last four rounds. The lack of communication from Bucks and the Pies was really disappointing in the last five weeks and then to rock up for my medical and to be told I was no longer needed was disappointing.

RHYS: You did a bit of ruck coaching at St Kilda, but then gave it away because of your other commitments. Any footy involvement now?
JOLLY: Not really, I’m just a watcher now. I watch the game on Friday night—have a couple of beers after work and watch on TV. Since I’ve finished I have probably been to three games. I’m just enjoying my life outside of footy.

RHYS: Rule changes have meant that clubs are tending to go with just a single ruckman. How hard is that making it for young ruckmen? You see midfielders going for hit-outs.
JOLLY: It’s learning more to being an athlete. Sooner or later the guys like Mumford and Goldstein and the bigger bodies will be phased out and you’ll see guys like Mark Blicavs and smaller guys like Jack Watts, mobile guys who can jump and run around the ground. For younger ruckmen coming through who are bigger and bulkier, they will need to put kilometres into their legs.

RHYS: What do you reckon about the suggestion that the bounce could be scrubbed?
JOLLY: I’m a traditionalist and there’s been a lot of tradition taken away from the game. I like the bounce. You can’t have footage of a Grand Final where an umpire walks in for the first bounce and throws it up. If an umpire isn’t strong enough in their bouncing the umpire should say it to both ruckmen, “I’m not great, I’m going to throw it up.” But with the guys that know how to bounce it you have got to keep it.