Jeremy McGovern (born 15 April 1992) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who plays for the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He is a tall key-position player who has spent most of his career as a defender, although he occasionally plays forward. McGovern was recruited from the

Claremont Football Club The Claremont Football Club, nicknamed Tigers, is an Australian rules football club based in Claremont, Western Australia, that currently plays in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). Its official colours are na ...

with the 44th pick in the 2011 Rookie Draft. He was something of a late bloomer, only making his senior debut for West Coast midway through the 2014 season (aged 22). McGovern has been a fixture in the Eagles' line-up since then, and in 2015 played in the grand final loss to

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

. He was named as a defender in the

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

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and 2019 All-Australian teams entrenching himself as one of the best key defenders in the league.

Early life

McGovern is the son of Andrew McGovern, who played for and in the 1990s. His younger brother

Mitch Mitch is a short form of the masculine given name Mitchell. It is also sometimes a nickname, usually for a person with the surname Mitchell. It may refer to: People * Mitch Altman (born 1956), hacker and inventor * Mitch Apau (born 1990), Dutc ...

plays for . As a child, McGovern spent four years living in Warburton, a remote community in the

Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The ...

where his father was working for the

Clontarf Foundation The Clontarf Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that assists in the education and employment of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. Overview With support from the corporate/philanthropic sector, state/Territory governments ...

. He later spent time in

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

and Albany, attending

North Albany Senior High School North Albany Senior High School is a comprehensive public high school located in Orana, a north-western suburb of Albany, Western Australia, a regional centre south-southeast of Perth. History The school was established in 1982 and by 2016 th ...

. McGovern played his junior football for the

North Albany Football Club The North Albany Football and Sporting Club, more often referred to as North Albany, is an Australian rules football club located in Albany, Western Australia. Nicknamed the roos, the club play in the Great Southern Football League, with home ...

, in the same teams as two other future AFL players – Josh Bootsma and Marley Williams. He played WAFL colts for Claremont in 2010, as a ruckman.

AFL career

McGovern was drafted by the Eagles with the 44th pick in the 2011 Rookie Draft (held in late 2010). He was elevated to the senior list in November 2013. In late 2013, McGovern showed up for pre-season training significantly overweight, after a holiday to Thailand. He was "banished" from the club and told to pursue an individual training routine if he wished to continue his career, eventually losing 10 kg and regaining the trust of the coaching staff. In his fourth year on West Coast's playing list, McGovern finally made his senior debut for the club in round six of the 2014 season, against

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

. He was dropped for the next game, but returned in round twelve against

as a like-for-like replacement for Josh Kennedy (who had a fractured cheekbone). McGovern kicked 10 goals across the next four games, and held his spot for the rest of the year. Overall he managed 13 games in 2014, playing predominantly as a swingman in a similar vein to how Adam Hunter was used under

John Worsfold John Richard Worsfold (born 25 September 1968) is a former Australian rules football coach and player. He was the senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) between October 2015 and September 2020. He pr ...

. In 2015, McGovern emerged as one of the best contested marks in the game as a result of West Coast's considerable injury list. Injuries to Eric MacKenzie and Mitch Brown meant McGovern was forced back into a key defender role. He performed it with aplomb despite often being undersized and inexperienced compared to some of the best forwards in the game. He emerged as a reliable mark, often going back with the flight of the ball into packs to influence the contest, and he was rewarded with a position in the 40-man

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

squad (although he did not make the final team). In 2016, after a career-best season, McGovern was named as a defender in the

2016 All-Australian team The 2016 Virgin Australia All-Australian team represents the best performed Australian Football League (AFL) players during the 2016 season. It was announced on 1 September as a complete Australian rules football team of 22 players. The team is ...

. He was the first Eagles key defender to make the team since

Darren Glass Darren Glass (born 14 May 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer who played as a full-back for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally from Northam, Western Australia, he attended Carine Senior High Sc ...

in 2011. McGovern set a new overall record for the most contested intercept marks in a season, and recorded the equal-most marks from opposition kicks in 2016 (alongside

Easton Wood Easton Phillip Wood (born 4 September 1989) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He grew up in Camperdown, Victoria while attending Geelong Grammar School. He was ...

). In July 2018, McGovern signed a five-year contract extension with West Coast reportedly worth $5 million. Many clubs were interested in recruiting him, including Fremantle, St Kilda and Sydney. In the West Coast game against Port Adelaide on Saturday 11 August 2018, McGovern kicked a goal after the siren to win the game for the West Coast Eagles. In Round 23, 2018, McGovern broke the record for most intercept marks in a season by taking his 77th of 2018. The record was previously held by Easton Wood of the Western Bulldogs at 76 and was set in 2015.

Statistics

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2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

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, style="text-align:center;", , 20 , , 10 , , 1 , , 0 , , 111 , , 53 , , 164 , , 67 , , 12 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 11.1 , , 5.3 , , 16.4 , , 6.7 , , 1.2 , , 2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 163 !! 37 !! 30 !! 1700 !! 735 !! 2435 !! 1105 !! 225 !! 0.2 !! 0.2 !! 10.4 !! 4.5 !! 14.9 !! 6.8 !! 1.4 !! 17 Notes

References

External links

* *
WAFL playing statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGovern, Jeremy 1992 births Living people West Coast Eagles players West Coast Eagles Premiership players Australian rules footballers from Western Australia People from Albany, Western Australia North Albany Football Club players Claremont Football Club players East Perth Football Club players All-Australians (AFL) One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players

Early life

AFL career

Statistics

See also

References

External links