Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Melbourne players have long known that Luke Jackson is as tough as he is talented.
Before he blossomed into Fremantle’s unicorn and a vital cog in their premiership tilt, Jackson dumbfounded the Demons with his ability to play through pain.
For two weeks during their 2020 season, while embedded in the Queensland COVID hubs, the first-year No.3 draft pick complained about playing with “hamstring tightness”. Scans would later show he had a grade two strain, and should have been on the sidelines for a month.
“He didn’t even realise that he’d done it,” Demons premiership teammate Tom McDonald said this week.
“I don’t think he comprehended the seriousness of it. The medical team were like, ‘Look mate, you’re out. When you’re injured with a grade-two hammy, you’re out of footy for a while, and you’re doing rehab.’
“I don’t know if that is a gift or not, but his ability to do what he did – play with that injury – was quite extraordinary.”
A raw, athletic young ruckman who had turned his back on a top-flight basketball to pursue an AFL career, Jackson had an ideal mentor in Max Gawn.
They formed a dynamic one-two punch in Melbourne’s 2021 premiership side, and have gone head-to-head ever since.
It was in the aftermath of Melbourne’s narrow victory over Fremantle in round 22 this year that Gawn’s teammates knew the master had taught the apprentice well.
“I remember looking at Max’s shin after he took his shin guard off after the game, and it was pretty horrible – his whole shin was lumpy, and covered in black-and-blue colours,” McDonald recalled.
“Those two just launched at each other all game. Talking to Gawny afterwards, he was like, ‘he’s just raw power’. And he’s using that in marking contests now. I think that’s been the biggest change.
“He had the athletic ability and sort of skill level around the ground, but it’s the ability to mark the ball in contested situations now that’s made him such a great player, which is what made Max a great player.”
The Warriors came calling
In another universe, Jackson could be taking it to the world’s best basketballers in the NBA with Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
It may sound far-fetched, but Jackson left basketball after staring at the under-17 FIBA World Cup in 2018 when he took on the likes of future NBA All-Star Alperen Sengun, who now has a $US185 million contract ($236 million) with the Houston Rockets.
Despite being one of the smallest “big men” at 199cm, he averaged 13.7 rebounds and 13 points a game, and scouts were hot on his tail, including the Warriors.
“He definitely had NBA scouts talking to me about him post that tournament and I had the unfortunate task of telling them he’s already decided to go play AFL,” Australian under-17 coach Justin Schueller said.
“There were four or five clubs that had shown interest in him but in our exit meeting after the worlds, I asked him what his plan was and he was like, ‘I’m going to play footy’. His mind was made up.”
Schueller made comparisons between Jackson and NBA great Dennis Rodman, an undersized rebounder able to beat out bigger opponents.
“He could end up being that sort of guy who comes in and makes an impact. I’m not sure anyone believed that he would turn out like Rodman, but that was the best comparison,” Schueller said.
“We played Sengun in the round games and a second time – I just remember Luke had a great battle with him. Physicality was never an issue for him.”
Amazingly, Jackson played for Western Australia at the AFL under-18 titles in early June before flying to Sante Fe, Argentina, to play at the world cup in the same month.
“I just prayed he didn’t get injured playing footy, and he didn’t,” Schueller said. “I think he wanted to please me by saying he was keeping both options alive, but when I look back now … I think he loved footy a couple of per cent more.”
The toothless wonder
Perth streetwear brand StreetX picked up on Jackson’s broad, fun-loving appeal soon after he arrived at Fremantle in 2022.
They designed a special T-shirt in his honour, featuring a painting-style picture of a smiling Jackson without his front teeth, and using his nickname “Dogga” – a sobriquet given to Jackson at Melbourne because teammates reckoned his curly mullet resembled the floppy ears of a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel.
“He can pull out his top teeth, and it’s incredible,” McDonald said.
“That was his go-to party trick in front of the boys when we were in the hub. When people walked past who didn’t know him, he just pulled them out, and they would be wondering ‘who’s this bloke with no teeth?’”
Jackson is a big name in a footy-mad state, and has been one half of a sporting power couple since he began dating sports presenter and former West Coast Fever star Kelsey Browne.
He has 60,900 Instagram followers, and one of his recent StreetX clips has been viewed more than 87,000 times.
It depicts the lumbering ruckman as an everyday superhero who stops traffic and helps an elderly woman, dressed in Fremantle gear, across the road.
“A character would be the best way of describing him,” McDonald said. “Just a very different thinker, a bit of a different cat, but loved by everyone.
“We all loved him [at Melbourne]. I think we knew when he wanted to go home, it was going to be a massive loss. And I don’t think he realised how good he was at footy either.”
Jackson’s good luck charm
There will be one passionate Jackson fan sitting in the MCG stands on Saturday – the footballer’s best mate and Melbourne United basketballer Luke Travers.
The pair were inseparable growing up, going to the same school, playing at the same clubs and wearing matching headbands during the under-17 world cup in 2018.
“That started from Nat Fyfe, and it was definitely a trend back then,” Travers told this masthead.
While their sporting careers forced them apart, Travers keeps a close eye on Jackson’s career as he works on a return to the NBA following a stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2024.
“It’s the stuff we spoke since we were kids, to get to the highest level in our sport and I want to say we’ve done a pretty good job of it so far,” Travers said.
Travers and Jackson, along with four-time NBL championship winner Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, led West Australia to an under-18 national title in basketball in 2018 for the first time in 18 years.
“To win it with my best mate at the time was special,” Travers said.
“To then go on and represent your country together was also pretty special – you remember those things for the rest of your life.”
A lifelong Fremantle fan, Travers is hoping the Dockers can break their 32-year drought.
“I was in Perth in 2021 and went to the grand final, I didn’t go for Melbourne but seeing him win a flag was pretty special,” Travers said. “I’ll be there on Saturday. No way I’ll miss it. I’ve been his good luck charm so far, hopefully that keeps going.”
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