PIMPINIO’S Liam Jakobi has stuck with the Tigers through thick and thin.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There’s no hiding from the fact that the past couple of seasons have been hard going for the young Pimpinio outfit. Despite some heavy losses, Jakobi said he never entertained thoughts of leaving for another club.
“I’ve played my whole life at Pimpinio, came through the juniors and then into seniors,” he said.
“The social side has always been a good thing but I just don’t think I could leave the club. The core people out there that run it, I get along with them so well – it would be hard to leave.”
Jakobi said playing in an under-17s grand final was a great experience during his junior days.
“My last year of under-17s I captained the team and we made the grand final,” he said. “We lost the final by a few a goals against Kalkee but that was a good experience.”
While coming through the junior ranks, Jakobi said he drew inspiration from Tigers veteran Daniel Baker.
“Daniel was probably a player I looked up to a fair bit.” he said.
“He was always polling well in league votes and that kind of thing. He was always first on the track and last off it.
“He shows a lot of leadership now because there is a bit of an age gap from him to our core group of players.”
Now Jakobi has stepped up to help guide the Tigers’ young crop of players. He took on extra leadership this year as assistant coach alongside first-time senior coach Nathan Sachse.
“It’s quite exciting seeing the young team,” Jakobi said.
“Being an assistant coach too you are seeing the future of the club and the junior ranks are coming along pretty well. It’s looking pretty exciting and it’s good to get out there with them and they do turn it on a bit and surprise us at times.
“If we can keep this core group of juniors coming through then the sky is the limit for us. It’s something we have been working on, making sure these guys want to stay.
“There are a lot of positives coming out of the club. The only two negatives really are the senior and reserves football. We have great netball numbers and two junior football teams that are doing really well. We have new netball courts going in next year, so I think we are going in the right direction.”
Suffering some big losses makes the wins even more sweeter. At the weekend the Tigers won their first game since 2016.
Jakobi said one win in particular would live long in his memory.
“In the 2014 season we didn’t win a game at all,” he said.
“The Swifts won the premiership that year. Then the next season we had lost a few games early on in the season. Then we went to Stawell and knocked off the Swifts at their home ground.
“They were the reigning premiers and that was a great feeling to get that first win on the board.”