\n Jai Newcombe had to wait for his AFL chance and the Hawks gun continues to use rejection as motivation.\n <\/p>\n
HAWTHORN midfielder Jai Newcombe will always carry a chip on his shoulder as he chases the ultimate success.<\/p>\n
A self-described “late bloomer”, Newcombe was overlooked by every AFL club before the Hawks gave the then 19-year-old Box Hill midfielder a shot via the 2021 mid-season rookie draft.<\/p>\n
Now 24, Newcombe starred for Hawthorn as he marked his 100-game milestone with 32 disposals, 12 clearances and a goal in the elimination final victory over Greater Western Sydney.<\/p>\n
And he shapes as one of the keys to the Hawks’ flag aspirations as they eye an upset of minor premier Adelaide in Friday night’s semi-final.<\/p>\n
“It gives you a bit of a point to prove with certain things and a small, little motivator that will always be there,” Newcombe said on Monday of his initial rejection.<\/p>\n
“It helps with my motivation and trying to get the most out of myself.<\/p>\n
“I was small when I was 16 to 18, fighting for positions that were already taken by better players at that time.<\/p>\n
“It’s just how the cookie crumbled for me.”<\/p>\n
Newcombe played under current Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell at Box Hill before finally receiving the draft call, in the final season before Mitchell took over from Alastair Clarkson.<\/p>\n
Despite having to take the long route to the big league, Newcombe said playing in the AFL was always something he had aspired to.<\/p>\n
“I guess the likelihood of it coming true becomes smaller and smaller as time goes,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But I always hoped to be here in the AFL world and I’m pretty fortunate with how it’s all turned out.”<\/p>\n
Newcombe was crucial in the Hawthorn midfield’s ability to get on top of GWS and is relishing the prospect another huge test against Adelaide’s engine room.<\/p>\n
He is bracing for a response from Crows captain Jordan Dawson, who was below his best in the qualifying final loss to Collingwood.<\/p>\n
“He’s been an elite leader for their side for a good three years now,” Newcombe said.<\/p>\n
“I have no doubt if they were unhappy with how he performed last week that he’s going to respond.<\/p>\n
“We’ll be looking to nullify as good as we can and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”<\/p>\n
Hawthorn has lost six of its past seven matches at Adelaide Oval, where its 2024 campaign ended in a heartbreaking three-point defeat to Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n
The Hawks were beaten there by Adelaide as recently as round 21, but Newcombe insists his teammates hold no fears about the venue.<\/p>\n
“I quite like going to Adelaide Oval,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a pretty cool venue with the old scoreboard and it’s always full of passionate fans when you go over to Adelaide.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure what the underlying factor is there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Newcombe had to wait for his AFL chance and the Hawks gun continues to use rejection as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-128907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}