Jake Stringer’s Essendon career hasn’t always been easy sailing, but the dynamic midfielder is entering 2022 as one of the competition’s elite.
The 27-year-old’s first two years at the Bombers after joining the club at the end of 2017 were full of potential, showcasing the talent that’s been surrounding him his whole career.
However, 2020 was a poor season for Stringer, playing just 10 games and averaging seven disposals a match as he dealt with a syndesmosis injury.
It was then that Stringer made a call to fitness coach Jack Kelly to reinvigorate his career, and his 2021 performances spoke for themselves.
Last year saw the former Bulldog average 16 disposals, five inside 50s, four clearances and over two goals a game.
However, it was in the backend of the season where Stringer did his best work, ranking as Champion Data’s number one player after the bye.
It was the culmination of his new fitness regime, but Kelly said Stringer was miles away when the two started working together.
“One of the first things he told me was that for the last three and a half months he hadn’t done any exercise outside of game day,” Kelly told SEN Mornings.
“He was really doing nothing during the week, playing on a Saturday, doing nothing during the week, playing on a Saturday, and his body was in a really bad place.
“As you (Kane Cornes) noted at the time, he was quite overweight because he wasn’t doing anything and he was in the hubs, not eating very well and a little bit isolated away from family for a lot of that.
“So he wasn’t in a good space, mentally or physically, not quite the level you need to be at to be one of the better players in the AFL.”
Despite the low point in his career, Stringer was committed to change and fulfilling his potential, which had been on show since an All-Australian jumper in 2016.
However, it wasn’t easy. Kelly had to help the gun midfielder make changes to his entire lifestyle in order to get up to an acceptable level.
“He identified these things and he heard the outside noise and he wanted to make the change, I guess it’s funny because the AFL has so many players and we sort of expect them to be professionals, but the reality is some people just aren’t and it takes them quite a while,” Kelly continued.
“We sort of just went to work on figuring out how to make him better.
“To be honest, with Jake it wasn’t just as simple as, ‘Hey mate, let’s start going for runs’, it was really a whole lifestyle change.
“We focused on everything, we focused on his diet, his sleep, his training, what he’s doing in his free time, his mindset, it had to be a pretty holistic approach with Jake because he was starting from a point that really wasn’t acceptable at the level of play he wanted to be at least.
“We’ve been working together on and off for the last two years, and he’s drastically improved, and I think a lot of that is just his attitude shift as much as anything.”
Stringer has been battling a groin complaint in recent days with his round one availability currently unclear.
His first chance to feature in a televised match will come in a practice match against the Western Bulldogs on February 23.
Listen to the full interview with Jack Kelly below