Courtney Walsh | July 19, 2008
SAINT Clint Jones' mind will drift to Perth as soon as he feels the icy spike tomorrow morning.
Memories of old South Fremantle mates and the even older Indian Ocean will clarify as the chill hits his spine, the pain his brain and the curse his vocal cords.
Regardless of the result of tonight's season-defining clash for St Kilda against Hawthorn at Telstra Dome, Jones will join his team-mates for an early morning recovery session in Melbourne's brisk bay and ponder the ludicrous situation.
"I suppose when you go back to South Fremantle days, we used to do a recovery at the beach, and you'd go for a swim and think, 'This is pretty tough'," he said.
"But the water here is like ice and I call my mates up and say 'You don't realise just how cold the water is here. It's like hopping into an ice bath. It's ridiculous'.
"When we went up to the Gold Coast to play the Kangaroos, the weather was great and the water was quite nice and you think, 'Imagine what it would be like in Perth at the moment?'."
But the lament will be momentary, even if the bay session follows a loss for the in-form Saints tonight.
Jones waited longer than most footballers for his chance and would strip to his togs for a swim in the bay twice a day if it meant he could continue his career.
The 24-year-old forward, who proved his courage marking with the flight of the ball despite a heavy hit from Sydney's Martin Mattner in the first game of the season, tonight plays the 17th game of an AFL career that nearly failed to start.
A slow developer, Jones missed selection for Western Australia's under-16 and under-18 state teams, but held hope he might be a surprise selection after finishing 2002 playing senior football in the WAFL.
Clubs including the Kangaroos and Fremantle, on whose training ground he honed his skills every week for four years from 2002, called but failed to deliver in coming years, despite the left-footer claiming a best and fairest honour with South Fremantle in 2005.
While the Jones boy could find plenty of the ball in the wide expanses of the west, the knockers were concerned by what he did with it.
So Jones found work installing irrigation systems in Fremantle, worked to correct the kicking deficiency and claimed another Bulldogs' best and fairest in 2006.
The phone rang again. This time it was St Kilda recruiting manager John Beveridge on the line.
But the flicker of hope died when Jones, one of four siblings, did not hear anything more in the next eight weeks.
It seemed the best he could hope for was an outstanding WAFL career - Jones was just the 11th Bulldog to win successive Hughes Medals - and further progression in the irrigation business.
"Come the rookie draft, I hadn't spoken to St Kilda since that time, so I thought, 'This isn't going to happen'," Jones said. "I was actually at work and was quite surprised when I got the phone call and was told I'd been picked.
"I thought, 'Oh My God', so I called my boss and said, 'I'm going home. I've got to sort some stuff out, because I'm moving to Melbourne I think'.
"I came over a week later, a couple of weeks before Christmas, and did two weeks of training and then went back home, but I've been here ever since."
And featured among the selectors' minds ever since. Despite Jones' arrival at St Kilda as a rookie, his determined nature - and the arrival of partner Jessica from Perth - allayed homesickness despite the daily calls from his mum, Roslyn.
Help from all-star mentors Lenny Hayes and Luke Ball allowed for a quick adaption and Jones soon earned an upgrade to the senior list and a debut against the Western Bulldogs in round three.
A broken collarbone against Sydney in round six delayed further progress, but Jones had waited too long to waste his chance and finished the year back in the seniors. Further work on his kicking - a point identified by team-mates and coaches at the end of the season - has seen his efficiency with the ball rise from 50 per cent from 10 touches a match last year to 74 per cent from 17 possessions a game in 2008.
"At the end of last year, just speaking to the coaches and the players, they identified that I had to work on that and I knew myself I had to work on it," he said.
"That was something that was holding me back and making a few of the clubs doubtful about picking me up. Even this year, it is something I've continued to work on and it has improved."
But he knows the improvement is not complete. Nor is the dream.
Having had a taste of a large MCG crowd when the Saints trumped Carlton last week, Jones is determined to cement a role in a side which can shore up a September start should it post a fourth consecutive win tonight.
"It is the home of footy, so it is everybody's dream."
....i'm off to the footy....go saints.....
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