Lachlan Knight has been a travelling road show this football season.
The young gun has played for the Western Jets in the TAC Cup as well as featuring for the Yarraville-Seddon Eagles in the Western Region Football League and Williamstown in the AFL Victoria development league.
Knight has been particularly thrilled to be able to represent his home club, Yarraville-Seddon, at senior level.
The 19-year-old got his start at the Seddon Hawks before their merger with the Yarraville Eagles and has always felt loyal about the club.
Even when he had the chance to go to division 1 junior clubs, he stayed at Seddon and battled away in often struggling teams.
“Loyalty is more important to me,” Knight said. “The club has done a lot for me and I’m thankful of the opportunities it gave me from an early age.”
Just the chance to pull on the boots this season has been welcomed by Knight.
In the last practice game before the 2014 season, he suffered a serious shoulder injury that ended his season there and then.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Knight, who was in his top age TAC Cup season, the year that is often decisive in whether a player will be drafted as a teenager or have to go the long route to the AFL via the state leagues.
Knight was lucky enough to be invited back to the Jets under a rule that permitted the club to bring back a 19-year-old under exceptional circumstances.
Come back he did, fitter and stronger after a successful surgery and a strict adherence to his rehab regime.
“I went to a really good surgeon, which obviously helps – my parents were straight on the front foot there,” Knight said. “I worked with the rehab team at the Jets and saw a physio weekly and that really helped. I’ve had no impediments and I almost feel stronger, so it’s been a blessing in disguise.”
Knight made a slow start to this season as he tried to get back to match fitness. It did not help his cause that his side was on the end of some heavy early season losses. But the longer the season has worn on and the more game time he enjoyed, the better Knight has got.
Knight started his career at the Jets mainly as a rebounding defender but has moved into a midfield role this season. The Yarraville resident has relished the chance to throw his weight around at the coal face and is one of the side’s most forceful midfielders.
It has been a tough season for the Jets, who sit bottom of the ladder with three games to go. They have been more competitive in recent times, losing their past two matches by just a kick.
With it being such a young side with a large number of bottom-age players, Knight has taken on extra leadership responsibilities, which he thinks will help his football career going forward.
“With the younger side, it makes it very important,” he said. “They’re all learning, they’re all developing their footy. It’s very important that our leadership is up to scratch so they can learn and improve.
“Looking at last year, the added responsibility of being in the leadership group sort of drove me to come to training every week despite missing all of last year with injury. It really helped me develop.”
Knight and the rest of the top-age Jets have three games left to leave an impression on the TAC Cup, starting with Saturday’s away clash with the Sandringham Dragons.
