Jack Steele isn’t sure where his tackling instinct comes from. He can sometimes finish games without
What we can be sure about are his numbers. In his first season at Linen House Centre, Steele has averaged the equal second most tackles in the AFL behind Geelong pressure machine Scott Selwood. He has also averaged the third most pressure points behind only Selwood and Brisbane game breaker Dayne Zorko. The numbers don’t lie.
“There was never too many boys playing Aussie rules at school, they were always playing rugby league or rugby union so I had to fit in with them and join in. That’s probably where I do get it from, that chasing and tackling. I suppose it is good to have a little bit of a rugby background,” Steele told the H&M Tracey Emerging Stars podcast this week.
“That just comes naturally. I know if I’m tackling and if I’m getting after the ball, I know I’m playing good footy. I’m pretty lucky that that comes naturally, for a lot of players it doesn’t and they don’t really chase and get
“It’s natural for me; I don’t know why that is; I don’t know why or how I’m built like that. After the game, I think I have had zero tackles but I’ve actually had ten, so that’s just the way it is sometimes; I’m blessed I guess.”
While he was starved of opportunity during his two seasons in western Sydney, Steele would have been a permanent fixture in the Giants midfield this season given the raft of injuries that club has suffered in 2017. Not that that thought bothers the unassuming kid from Canberra.
Steele has played all but two games in his first season at St Kilda, where he has averaged career high numbers across the board, established himself in the Saints’ engine room and validated his decision to pursue a fresh start.
“A lot of people would say I’d still be playing there now with all the injuries they’ve had this year,” Steele said. “I don’t resent my decision because all the players will be coming back into the side around finals time and I’d just get pushed out which would probably be the worst thing for me. I’m glad I made the decision.
“Looking back on it now, although they’re in finals, I feel personally my game has developed. It was the best thing for my footy and
Since uprooting his life in Sydney for the second time in the space of a couple of years last October, Steele has settled into Melbourne, moving in with young pair Lewis Pierce and Hugh Goddard. While football clubs are similar beasts, Steele believes the difference between Melbourne and Sydney is astronomical in terms of interest in our game.
“The football environment is completely different,” he said. “I was thinking about this the other day; in Sydney you sort of look forward to hearing something about footy, you look in the newspaper for it, you turn the TV onto Fox Footy, but here you sort of run away from it a bit, you sort of get a little bit sick of it; that’s the big difference for me.”
As another season draws towards the end and the next trade period draws nearer, Steele continues to emerge as one of the most economical exchanges of last October’s trade period. The numbers don’t lie.
