AFL Odds: Roughead Still Hungry
January 15th, 2015 by TJ DilferWith a winning 2014 season behind them, and AFL odds that point to them being the team to beat again in 2015, this generation of Hawthorn players, if it sees more success, could easily be counted amongst the greatest.
And one of the key players in this cohort, Jarryd Roughead, looks hungry coming into the new season to find himself some more success – and with him the team. He’s already the proud owner of three premierships, but there’s little doubt that another win would be amongst the sweetest of Roughead’s career, especially after he threw his lot in with the Hawks by signing a new contract that will take him to 2018 as a Hawthorn man. He’s looking for ‘a few more flags’, too, he says: ‘we’ve been lucky enough to obviously win premierships in the last few years and to win a few more over the new few years with some of these free agents coming in would be very good also. A lot of people would say we could take the foot off the pedal in terms of training. (But) we’ve got the right attitude at the moment with how we go about training and the standards we set are very, very good. This is just what we needed before Christmas … it’s a very good sign.’
And Roughead, it looks like, could happily end his career at the Hawks – by the time this new contract expires, he’ll be a 31-year-old veteran, and the question of when he calls time will be looming. It makes sense for him to feel settled and confident, of course, and this new deal will do that: ‘it’s safe to say that at 31, when this deal does expire, it might be hard for free agency. It was a good chance for me to get it out of the way now and not have to worry when I turn 28 that I’m a free agent and all the publicity that comes with it. To be able to lock it away now and say that I’m here until the end of 2018 when I’m 31 is a very good thing for myself and hopefully for the footy club as well.’
A settled and in-form Roughead will make those AFL odds look about right for the Hawks, too, and make another winning season a very real possibility…
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