Jesse Eickhoff may not be the first name that jumps off the page when you look at the Rowville Hawks’ team sheet, but his coach knows his value better than anyone.
The defender’s flawless performance in Saturday’s Eastern Football Netball League Premier Division grand final saw him crowned the Cliff Tomkins medallist as the best player on the ground, having kept the dangerous Adrian Kalcovski in-check for the afternoon while providing critical drive out of the back half.
When the two sides met back in round 11, Rowville’s last loss on a glittering run to its first premiership in the EFNL’s top division, Kalcovski kicked six, including four in a brilliant second quarter, running rings around the Hawks defenders in the decisive 47-point win.
In the second semi-final he was kept to just three, and then on Saturday he was barely sighted, kept goalless as the Eagles struggled to kick a winning score.
It was a selfless performance that Ben Wise said typifies the man they call “the glove”.
“He’s probably the first one picked in my side every week, and probably has been ever since I got to the footy club,” the premiership-winning coach said of Eickhoff.
“You look at all the good sides at AFL level, you’ve always got that defender that takes the best forward and he took Kalcovski and kept him goalless, with some crucial one-on-ones throughout the day.
“Kalcovksi got him earlier in the year, it think he kicked three on (Eickhoff) before we made the change. Jesse was injured that day, but in the second semi he played on him and Kalcovski got a couple of cheap ones.
“We spoke about it, we reviewed it and went through how he got them and what he tries to do at certain situations in the game. We were able to educate what Jesse needed to do, and came up with a plan and he executed it.”
Much like Eickhoff, the ability to respond to a challenge personified the Hawks’ performance in the decider, as on-field leadership came to the fore at the most critical of times.
At no stage did Vermont manage to kick more than two consecutive goals, no matter how many times they threatened to make a charge.
Two in quick succession during the third term cut the Hawks’ lead to just a single point, before Anthony Brolic kicked the captain’s goal to end all captain’s goals to give his side some breathing space.
While in the final term, a pair of majors in the space of 60 seconds could have seen the Hawks crumble under pressure, the lead back to within a single kick.
But through inspirational returning ruck Nik Shoekmakers, veteran forward Maverick Taylor and spearhead Lachlan Wynd, they answered yet another challenge at the very next opportunity.
It could even be argued that the entire season was a response from the devastation of a grand final thrashing in 2022 at the hands of Noble Park, and the need to prove that their run to September was more than just a flash in the pan.
With premiership medallions and a fresh flag hanging in the rooms at Seebeck Oval, any doubt has been emphatically eschewed.
“It was pleasing for every kid that I’ve got at the footy club with a medal around their neck,” Wise said.
“These boys, 90 per cent of them have come through juniors together and they’re all the same age, they’ve played finals together. To be able to say now that they’re premiership players, it’s a bond that you’re never going to be able to lose.
“I’m just so happy and proud for them. It’s been a real hard journey over the last 12 months, not many sides bounce back and recover mentally to go from a losing grand final and execute and win the next year.
“I’m just so proud of them and I think they’ll go so much from it.”
