Jezza on Cats’ hopes, his future and Pies’ interest
Jeremy Cameron chats with Cal Twomey about the Cats’ season, his future and why he wouldn’t be bored if he retired today
HE HAS gone from Greater Western Sydney original to Geelong premiership superstar. In between, he’s done it his way.
There’s plenty on the agenda this week as Cats forward Jeremy Cameron sat down with Cal Twomey for Cal’s Q&A. Ahead of round one, Cameron discusses why he’s excited about the Cats in 2024, details his concussion last year, reveals why he turned his back on Collingwood, talks about the pressure in joining Geelong, his favourite young key forward in the AFL and how much longer he expects to be in the game.
It’s AFL season number 13 for you. Do the nerves change ahead of round one with time?
You get better at managing that as you get older for sure. Early days, definitely there were a fair few nerves, but probably still less so than others. It’s more the enjoyment. I just get really excited. That’s the trouble with me – I’ve always been one who gets really excited before big games and that’s why I don’t sleep. It’s not so much that I’m worried about things or nervous, it’s just excitement. I wish the game was coming around a bit quicker. It’s like with Opening Round we’ve just had, it would have been nice to just play. But yeah, 13 years goes quick.
Nobody really knows how good the Cats can be this year. What do you think is possible?
I’m very positive. There’s always going to be a bit of talk from the outside about how we’re going to go, like there is with every team. It comes down to how much you want to read into that and I don’t read into that at all. But there’s very positive signs with what I’ve seen in the pre-season, especially through the younger group we’ve got coming through, who are 19, 20 through to 25 who have played enough footy to go to the next level.
Give us some names.
Tanner (Bruhn). Maxy Holmes. Mitch Knevitt has been really good. Ollie Dempsey is one who we’ve seen a lot from internally but over the last three weeks he’s probably jumped out for a few people. We want him to back himself and go grab it. ‘Clarky’ (Jhye Clark) is getting a run at it through the midfield as well. We’ve seen it in snippets previous to this pre-season but he’s had a clean run. Seeing Tanner, Max and Clarky in the middle together at once is exciting. The more games you get into these guys the better they’re going to get.
St Kilda up first at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night as the new Joel Selwood Stand is opened. How’s the completed ground looking?
It’s been a little while coming but we’ve been patient with the whole thing. In COVID it didn’t really faze us too much not having the stand finished and then as a couple of years roll on you’re excited for it to be finished. The supporters surprised us a little bit the other night in the practice game against Essendon as 11,000 turned up and it was nice to see people sitting there and the noise now is held in a lot more. When we pack it out hopefully for round one and get a full house it’s going to be great for the players and fans to experience.
It’s already been such a decorated career for you. What drives you as you head into another season?
I don’t look back yet on what I’ve done in my career. It’s all centred around that 2022 when we won the flag. But I want to learn new ways to get better every year. That’s what drives me. When I first started at the Giants the older boys used to say ‘You guys keep us young and energised’ and now the roles are flipped. I love coming to work and it’s a positive place and somewhere you can always look to get better.
Last year was going well for you but the concussion and shoulder injury in round 15 changed things. How disruptive was that?
It was definitely a difficult second half of the year for me. I was in a really good place coming into the year and started well, and I felt I was playing well. I don’t know if it was my best footy, it’s hard to get a gauge on that, but it was definitely right up there. But the incident happened and it was unlucky because I recovered quite quickly from the head knock in two to three weeks. I had to give it a little bit more time than I usually would which is fair enough and my body was letting me know that. But then it was just the shoulder, which I didn’t really think about much at the time. I remember when I woke up on the ground that night it was my shoulder that was screaming at me, it wasn’t my head. I was trying to explain that to the doctor but he thought I was just concussed. I could feel my AC out. I thought after three weeks off I could get past the shoulder but it was no good, it was shocking. I was thankful I would still play some good games and contribute but I was battling at home. We had a newborn and I couldn’t lift her off the ground, I couldn’t have a backpack on my shoulder going to the car and then obviously living on a farm I like being active but it was a constant battle for 10-12 weeks until I had the surgery. It was a year of two halves – the front nine and the back nine. I’m a golfer and I felt like I shot under the card on the front nine and played like shit on the back nine. But that’s football and I’m thankful I’m feeling good this year.
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