It’s hard to believe Jeremy McGovern has only played 24 games of AFL football.
Thrust into a key defensive position at the start of the year, McGovern has handled himself with aplomb in his new role down back, playing his part covering for the losses of Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown.
The 23-year-old says it’s a testament to the team's defensive system that they have managed to cover the injury setbacks they’ve faced down back.
“We have a team-first approach and it’s working well for us at the moment,” he said.
“There was a lot of external talk around at the start of the year saying we were gone, but we’ve just had to find a way and it’s been good to see us respond so far.
“Schoey (Will Schofield) has been fantastic back there, he’s taken on some big boys and handled himself really well, and guys like Shep (Brad Sheppard), Bung (Shannon Hurn) and Shaz (Sharod Wellingham) have had to play tall at times.
“But we’ve just got on with it and worked together really closely and it’s working.
“We’ll get found out at times, there’s probably no escaping that, but hopefully we can keep on top of things more often than not.”
It has been well documented that McGovern has ‘played sore’ a number of times this season, but he says it’s just part of AFL footy.
“I’ve copped a couple of bumps and bruises,” he said with a smile.
“Everyone gets them throughout the year, it’s nothing new.
“The break did come at a good time, but I think everyone’s in the same boat with that.”
Round 13 was a chance for the Eagles players to rest up, McGovern says he’s looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this Saturday against Melbourne.
“We trained Saturday and now we’re into a normal week,” he said.
“Our days off were right on the back of the Richmond game, so we’ve been back on deck for a few days now, so we’ve all switched right back on.
“We fly out to Darwin on Thursday, and we can’t wait to face the Demons on Saturday.
“They’ve just come off beating Geelong in Geelong, so we know they’re a dangerous team.
“There are going to be a lot of challenges on the way home and this weekend is one of those.”
