Daylesford premiership ruckman Ben Jones

A first premiership for Daylesford co-captain Ben Jones

Transcript

00:00Well, Ben, you're going to wear this new look for some time, it looks like you've ended

00:05up with a broken nose, but I don't think that's anything to worry about because the least

00:11of your concerns at the moment is your physical welfare because you've just won a Premiership.

00:15Yeah, exactly.

00:16I won't feel much pain tonight, that's for sure.

00:19And your first flag too?

00:20Yeah, first flag.

00:21So I played in a couple of grand finals and my last one was 2012, so yeah, it was good

00:25to just get back here and then to win it, yeah, it just feels surreal really, yeah.

00:29Okay, so that 2012 number was quite a common factor through the club then?

00:34Yeah, exactly.

00:35So, yeah, it's crazy, yeah.

00:36Tell us what it was like when the siren went, I mean, you probably knew that the flag, the

00:40Premiership was there with probably five minutes to go, but in grand finals, until you hear

00:44that siren, it's not in the bag.

00:46Yeah, exactly.

00:47I did think it was over until the siren went and then, yeah, it was just surreal, like

00:51I just couldn't believe it, yeah, it was just crazy.

00:53Never hugged so many people in my life, so yeah, it was awesome.

00:57Tell us what do you think it means for the club?

00:59Oh, it's massive from where we came from, we could barely even field two sides in the

01:04end, was that last year?

01:05And yeah, to come from two wins to winning a flag, like no one would have predicted that

01:10even to make finals, so yeah, it was a huge effort, but to get here and win the flag,

01:14yeah, it's just surreal, yeah.

01:15You played a bit of a part in the recruiting side of things too, you've got some mates

01:18and then it just kept snowballing.

01:20Tell us about that because, you know, recruiting's tough at any time, but to suddenly get such

01:25a big band of experienced players, almost self-coached out there.

01:30Yeah, exactly.

01:31So I was sort of lucky that Werribee won the flag, so I played with Trent Lee, Lee Johnson

01:34and that at Maribyrnong Park, so I got them across and then I played with Jordan Schroder

01:40before and Boise and that and then sort of got them too and then, yeah, so all the work

01:45gets around and then all of a sudden we've got 10 new players, so yeah, it just all fell

01:49into place really, so yeah, and here we are.

01:52So what's it sound like, Ben Jones, 2024 co-captain, premiership captain.

02:00It'll take a while to sink in I reckon, but yeah, it sounds good.