Jezza’s Journal: West Coast Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern talks about a winning week, the adorable scones lady and the best blokes in hub life

It is always a pleasing week when you win. We had a big emphasis on contested footy and hunting the ball and we did that well. Sydney didn’t want to kick it in high and long to their forward line, they wanted to use handballs and break through stoppage but we used other defensive acts to all play our roles. I thought it was a good, mature performance from our guys especially when the skipper goes down with a hamstring and then Jamaine Jones as well, who was playing good footy. We don’t need Jakey Waterman or Oscar Allen to kick six goals but they played their roles really well and throw in Jacko Nelson, Liam Duggan and Tom Cole across half-back and they worked really well together. The positive is we didn’t have to rely on our senior players to get us over the line. I had front-row seats to Tommy Barrass climbing up and taking a big hang. It was good to see a backman on top for once, usually we are a step ladder. Personally I was a little bit sore after the game but I got through. My stats weren’t huge but it was more leadership stuff on the day, helping set up behind the ball and directing the back six. We are an intercepting team and it makes it hard when they don’t kick it in long but we adjusted well. Individually the boys are a lot happier after a win, the reviews stay consistent but even if you didn’t play the best if the team wins it’s normally a good week. We are entering the final couple of days of hub life and the boys are punching out their last couple of golf games or surf sessions before our stuff gets sent back home today. We were briefed this week on the protocols and procedure when we get back home, there is pretty heavy restrictions compared to here in the hub. We are not allowed to leave the house except for training and that training is completely in groups of eight so we won’t see each other for most of the week. It is exciting to get home and see the family and kids but there is still more to work through around the isolation. The few weeks here on the Goldy have opened my eyes up a bit. There have been a few surprises, I didn’t know how much the boys love PlayStation and then there are the groups that go play golf or surf while Bunga (Shannon Hurn) smashes the pinball machine. We had a good yarn this week about what we use to have in our school lunch boxes, who thought that would last two hours? Best hub person I would have to award is Hamish Brayshaw. For a bloke that’s not playing and its been hard to break in without playing too many games, he has a really good balance. He gets out and does a bit of everything, I think he’s pretty funny as well. We had a swim at Twin Falls in the Gold Coast Hinterlands, the coldest water I’ve swam in. Up there we uncovered Polly’s Country Kitchen halfway up the hill to the hinterlands. We talked the nice lady into supporting West Coast, we’ve been up there so much. She does ripping scones and was a Richmond supporter but she’s been following us intently. She was so happy we got the win, which was actually refreshing because we haven’t seen too many fans, and she gave us some free scones for the win. Time now for our final game against Adelaide, it would be great to finish 3-3 and build on that confidence from last week. We fly back straight after the game. Shower, grab our bags and get on the tarmac and I think we might be sharing the flight with Freo as well. The bloke most likely to get left behind is Hutchy (Mark Hutchings) if he was playing. Brad Sheppard is a chance to still be in the rooms, he runs his own ship and takes a lot of time. He’ll be doing his hair for the flight home for sure.