Stamos wrote:
jt wrote:
Amazed we got him so cheaply. Great pick.
Anyone know if he was on any other clubs radar? or what the general opinion of him before the draft was?
I think he may have been considered too much trouble. I read a really good article about him last year (in The Age, I think).
He was living in a car/homeless. He used to rock up to games at Swan Districts and had not eaten for days, so someone at the club would buy him a pie from the canteen and he would play. That's why he was so skinny.
A massive effort to become an AFL footballer. Imagine what he's going to be like in a couple of years, with more pre-seasons and good nutrition.
Jeff Garlett finds home at CarltonQuote:
"He's a real good kid, but, if he didn't have footy, I'd hate to think where he might have ended up,"
"He's a kid that's been bumped here, there and everywhere in the past few years. It was great to see someone give him a chance.
"I think his circumstances off the field made a lot of people (clubs) shy away.
"I used to say to a few people, 'Imagine him in the AFL system if he can play like he plays without eating properly, no regular home'.
"Jeff is the perfect example of the problems an indigenous kid faces in Perth without his family."
"He had been by himself in Perth for quite a while without any consistent accommodation.
"He'd come here (the club) on match days and might not have had a proper meal for a couple of days, and we would have to take him into the canteen and give him a roll.
"He needed lifts to and from training, he struggled to hold a job because he didn't have a licence. He hasn't had it easy off the field."
"I genuinely believe if he didn't get picked up and given a chance (in the AFL), he would have been back in the bush in a couple of years.
"Everything's been hard for him except footy, which has come natural to him."