REBELS WITH A CAUSE: TAC Cup trio Willem Drew, James Gow and Jarrod Korewha will play for Koroit. Drew and Gow are two-time premiership players and Korewha is preparing for his first decider. Picture: Amy Paton

JARROD Korewha ran the water for Koroit in its past two Hampden league flags.

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The opportunity to immerse himself in the grand final action was too good to pass up for a teenager who bleeds red, white and black.

Now, at 18 and considered an AFL draft chance, Korewha is preparing to don Saints’ colours on grand final day.

“I am privileged to be able to play for the club and represent them on grand final day,” he said.

“Obviously we’ve had a pretty good team the last couple of years and I was running water to get involved with the club.

I had the best seat in the house, I thought.
- Jarrod Korewha on his times as Koroit waterboy

“I’d been doing it since I was 15. I had the best seat in the house, I thought.”

Korewha has spent the 2016 season honing his skills as a key defender at TAC Cup club North Ballarat Rebels and via the AFL Academy and national under 18 championships.

The Perth-born talent played his first senior game for Koroit for the season on preliminary final day, slotting in alongside fellow Rebels teammates Willem Drew and James Gow.

Korewha will attend the state combine in October as he eyes a potential AFL career but the esteem of playing in a premiership for his home club drives him just as much.

“I started there when I was under 14s, when I was 13,” he said.

“I love the club. I’d come back and watch whenever I could and I still want to play for the club.

“It is such a good feeling to run out in the jumper.”

Gow and Drew are striving for their third straight flags with Koroit.

Korewha, one of five siblings and a twin, said he was excited to play alongside the pair on the big stage.

“It’s going to be unreal. I played with Willem all through juniors, Rebels and at Vic Country this year,” he said. “To run out with him on Hampden league grand final day will be big.”

Korewha, who rates Koroit veteran Chris McLaren as one of the biggest influences on his career, cut off his well-known mullet pony-tail two months ago. He’d had the unique hairstyle for four-and-a-half years but thought, as he strives to make the top grade, that a change was needed.

“You have to be a lot more professional – on and off the field,” Korewha said.

“It saved me from the ‘what ifs’ at the end of the year. I am trying to tick every box.”