Jezza’s Journal: A very honest West Coast Eagles champion Jeremy McGovern opens up on the sacrifices the players are making for this AFL season plus a look a week filled with family catch ups

West Coast Eagles vice-captain Jeremy McGovern is keeping his home town Albany in the loop during this unprecedented AFL season. Read Jezza’s Journal every Thursday in the Advertiser. Seeing my family this week was great. I was hoping we’d get to play against each other but because we were both ruled out my brother Mitch came over, he met Marlee, and we watched the game together. My thumb function was heaps better in the lead-up to last week’s game but we still weren’t happy with it and we were going to be taking a big risk playing before three weeks. Watching the footy with Mitch was good, we were both pretty relaxed. Carlton got a few points up early and then our boys got control. Even though he is my brother, it was good to just speak to an opponent from another team, get how he sees things and we almost compared notes on the game. Mum and Dad and Mitch came around on Tuesday night and we spent the night together. We ordered some Thai and played cards and Monopoly. I usually catch up with the folks every couple of weeks but it’s the first time I’ve seen them since the season has started with every-thing going on. Dad tries to stay away from giving us boys any advice. He’s interested in footy and intrigued about things in club land so he asks questions but there is a holistic approach with him and he just loves the game. It was Madi’s birthday on Monday so it’s been a real family week, the kids have been smashing cake and just to see everyone after so long was good. Mitch was in Adelaide over Christmas so we didn’t see him then. Although he’s excited to be here in WA where he has grown up, he can’t do much while he’s here with all the quarantine and isolation so there is definitely mixed emotions from him. We have a seven-day break before Hawthorn and then the club has notified us we’ll probably leave after the GWS game but don’t know if or when we’ll get back to Perth to play again. We’re hopeful of getting to play a few more games here, but not really expecting it. At this stage it looks like we are headed to a hub in Queensland. It feels like this has been the longest year and you’ve still got eight weeks if you are lucky. We’ve got four or five weeks left and then finals but there has been so many changes and it just hasn’t gone quick. We were on the Gold Coast four or five weeks ago but it feels like last year. The team that wins the premiership will have overcome a fair bit and people will be divided on how they look at it. The people that win it will say it’s the hardest one they’ve won and others will say it’s tainted. I’m understanding of why we’ve made the season happen. Players are getting half the pay and taking twice as much risk and it’s a five times harder season with travel, condensed fixture, hubs and all the testing. If you presented this situation to most businessmen they wouldn’t even consider it. But I think we’ve done a good job to keep it going. It is to benefit the AFL community and keep those people in jobs and keep our clubs alive. In a normal year, AFL players get it pretty good but now we have extra pressure from family while we are away, more pressure on our body and our professional life is getting compromised. A lot of things I don’t think people understand and we are not complaining, but I think we need to let people know the sacrifices the players are making; we are all in it for the greater good. The easy option would have been not to play but once you are in, it’s full steam ahead. I feel for our younger boys, they can’t play in WAFL to get themselves into the team, they are playing 10v10 on the weekend and some don’t have contracts for next year. I’m extremely confident I’ll play this week. I just need to get through training today and feel as comfortable as I have in the last few days.