DANGEROUS small forward Jamaine Jones is desperate to don Geelong’s famous blue and white hoops for the first time.
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But the Heywood teenager, in the midst of his first AFL pre-season, knows he might have to bide his time before earning a senior debut.
Jones, 18, is hoping to return to full training soon after a foot injury curtailed his program three weeks ago.
The 2016 Hampden interleague best-on-ground medallist, speaking during the Cats’ Warrnambool school visits on Monday, is recovering well from the minor setback.
“Hopefully I can train fully on Wednesday,” he said.
“I have been in rehab, which is not too good, because I am missing training a lot, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do I guess.
“I don’t how it happened, I just blew up with a sore foot and I couldn’t walk on it the next day and the next day.
“They said in the MRI they saw some fluid in some joints.”
Jones arrived at the Cattery via November’s rookie intake – one of seven Hampden exports picked up in a recording-breaking draft period for the south-west.
The 177-centimetre Greater Western Victoria Rebels graduate said he was adapting to the rigours of AFL football and living away from his tight-knit family, including foster mum Sue Lovett.
“Moving away was a big one, from my family, but you’ve got to do it,” he said.
“They get down there sometimes – on the family day they got there – but I come up most mostly because Mum’s got all the kids.”
Jones spent five days learning from some of the AFL’s best at an indigenous all-stars camp in Broome earlier this month.
His former Rebels teammate-turned-Brisbane draftee Cedric Cox, who shot onto the AFL radar after joining Camperdown 12 months ago, also took part in the program.
“I got to meet everyone, like Shaun Burgoyne, Cyril (Rioli), Lindsay Thomas,” Jones said.
“It was really good bonding. We all just connect in a way – that’s just what we do – and we got to learn about their culture up there.
“It was hot though. It was like 40 and you just lose five kilograms sitting there.”
Jones spoke to Clontarf Academy indigenous students at Warrnambool College on Monday, happy to pass on his experiences to footballers hoping to follow in his footsteps.
Fellow Hampden draftee Dion Johnstone, a North Warrnambool Eagle now plying his trade at Melbourne, spent time in the program when he attended Brauer College.
“It’s really good to come down and talk to them and tell them my background and what I’ve been through and that they still can make it,” Jones said.