Jeremy Cameron’s golf handicap now sits at about six according to his playing partner Brad Close, after the friends played a round of golf with fellow teammates Jack Bowes and Cam Guthrie at Thirteenth Beach on Wednesday.
That’s the same handicap Cameron had as a 14-year-old, built up in the years before he first kicked a football around Dartmoor, in Victoria’s south-west, at the age of 15, despite spending a year playing golf with right-handed clubs before realising he was left-handed.
The big stage has made people recognise Jeremy Cameron’s talents.Credit: Getty
“He’s good, he’s very good,” Close said after Cameron scored 40 Stableford points to beat Guthrie on 39.
When reminded Cameron’s handicap of six is a return to the one he held in his early teens, Close begrudgingly acknowledged that his friend’s handicap as a junior reflected Cameron’s precocious talent: “It was something ridiculous.”
Teammates, friends and fellow golfers Jeremy Cameron and Brad Close.Credit: AFL Photos
Ridiculous is the type of football Cameron has played in the first five rounds, kicking 22.7 and recording 47 score involvements. He had his 2000th kick in the AFL in his 215th game last Sunday. He hasn’t wasted many of them around the ground, and has added 553 goals and 305 behinds to the scoreboard too. His 2023 goal average has him on pace for 100 goals in the season if he played every game.
“If you had to ask me, I reckon he’s the best player in the comp for sure,” Close said.
Former Essendon goalkicking great Matthew Lloyd concurs, his eyes revealing more than the numbers.
“He doesn’t really have a flaw in his game,” Lloyd said. “His marking has improved. He can get you through his running capacity. He can get you for his size and his power, his kicking has got to a point where not many forwards have got to with his field kicking and his goal-kicking excellence.”
The 30-year-old’s potential to become the best player in the game wasn’t really evident to Devon Smith, his teammate when Cameron began his career at the Giants.
Smith reckons the skinny kid looked like a local fisherman hoping for a lift to the nearest pier when he lobbed in Sydney as a 17-year-old.
However, he soon showed elite qualities in all areas, with competitiveness, running ability, strength and incredible skill packed into the frame that is now 196 centimetres and 96 kilograms.
“I thought I was a little bit biased when I came back to Melbourne and a lot of people were asking me who was the best player I had played with, and I always said ‘Jez’. I don’t think he is doing anything extraordinary compared to what he was doing in the early days at Giants. I just think that now he is down here in Melbourne he is getting a lot more recognition,” Smith said.
“His high-level running was up there with the likes of [Giant running machines] Tom Scully and Dylan Shiel, and he is 196 cm and obviously a great field kick and kicks goals like a small forward.”
Bomber Patrick Ambrose was Essendon’s best athlete in his 88-game career with the club, so he was regularly given the job on Cameron when the star was a Giant. Smith, who played with Ambrose, said a myth arose that the popular defender often became injured after playing on Cameron due to the workload, although Ambrose reckons it was only once that his opponent’s athleticism was the cause.
Ambrose’s calf exploded during that 2018 encounter as the pair tore around the ground pursuing each other. When the medical staff checked the GPS results to see what might have caused Ambrose’s injury they did a double take.
“The high-speed running measurement was absolutely through the roof,” Ambrose said.
“I thought I matched up pretty well on him, but he gets you up the ground and goes back to goal, and he is such an opportunist.”
While he is often called “Jezza”, his running power generated on skinny legs has resulted in Cameron earning the more descriptive nickname of “The Emu”.
Former Giants teammate Heath Shaw explains why the comparison with the flightless bird is apt. “His skinny legs go quickly, but he doesn’t move his torso when he runs,” Shaw said.
Former Cat Luke Dahlhaus used to love screaming out “The Emu” as Cameron sped around the track.
Since returning to Victoria as a free agent, he has become a regular matchwinner for Geelong, with teammates relaying stories of him telling the midfield at times last season just to get the ball to him, and he would do the rest, the forward having benefited from having multiple smart decision makers at the Cats.
But Cameron has also won their respect through the way he trains, and makes them laugh with his approach to life.
Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield celebrate Geelong’s premiership last year. The two free agents have made the Cats an exciting team to watch.Credit: Eddie Jim
“He has got that ability to really switch on when he needs to and probably that nice balance of making sure he is enjoying himself the whole time; you don’t normally see him too upset or frustrated,” Close said.
“Between him and Tom Hawkins, when things are going really well, geez, it is fun to be part of. [I find myself] just watching the boys as a bit of a fan at times, just seeing them go about it is great fun.”
Cameron’s skills have not appeared by magic. He is always on the track early or late, mucking around, having shots at goal, subconsciously practising kicks that others can’t make. He has also benefited from the friendship and expertise of Hawkins, which he has lapped up since arriving at the Cats. “Tomahawk” was one of the main motivations for Cameron’s move and their relaxed natures are perfect for each other.
“He is always having fun but some of his ball use, his skills … it just looks effortless at times,” Close said. “It’s a bit annoying really when you watch it and think, ‘How does he do it that easy’ and then I try to do it, and it does not quite work.”
Shaw reckons the untold part of the laconic, brilliant Cameron is how he has combined his capacity for hard work with what he is passionate about. And how he loves sharing his passions with others, making him a great teammate.
“He loves footy, loves sport, and he is good at everything. He has an unbelievable throwing arm. If he was a baseballer, he would be a big lefty,” Shaw said.
“He is always competing with someone else – table tennis, darts. He has an element of fun but also an element of competition which has made him who he is today.”
Smith said it wasn’t just sport but video games as well, with the former housemates often up at 2am playing Call of Duty when they should have been in bed ahead of training or a match because a game was on the line.
Jeremy Cameron and Toby Greene were teammates at the Giants in the 2019 Grand FinalCredit: Getty
Cameron’s wrestling with former Giants teammate Toby Greene – another contender for the game’s best player – on Mad Monday were legendary.
“I have seen some of the most epic wrestles to the point where they wrestle for so long that people lose interest in it,” Shaw said.
After Cameron kicked three goals to help the Giants beat Port Adelaide by one point in Shaw’s 300th game, about 20 people found themselves post-game back in Shaw’s hotel room in Adelaide. Cameron and Greene started wrestling on the bed, and then fell down beside the bed.
About 25 minutes later, as people started leaving, Cameron’s head popped above the bed as Greene finally conceded defeat. Everyone was surprised at his reappearance. The pair had been grappling for so long everyone else forgot they were there.
If he sets his mind to something, Cameron is hard to stop. In an episode of the podcast Tommy Talks in August last year, Cameron revealed to his former teammate Tom Sheridan that he could hardly bend over heading into the 2022 round-six clash against North Melbourne.
He had set his mind on finishing the painting of his house that week and had been up until 1am each night doing so, with his body feeling the toll. But the warm-up and a massage helped, and he ran out and kicked seven goals.
Close’s tone suggests that’s just Jeremy when he confirms he spent a bit more time than the average player on the tools during last season as he led the Cats to a well-earned flag.
“There have been times when he does too much. Obviously now with his baby [daughter Macey] he is always doing something,” Close said.
The running joke at the club is that Moccona instant coffee keeps Cameron going, with Close confirming “he always has [a coffee] in his hand”.
But that’s only if there isn’t a football or a golf club or his daughter or a tractor steering wheel in it, with the 30-year-old who lives with his partner Indiana on a property about 20 minutes out of Geelong appearing as happy as anyone could be with his lot in life.
On Saturday night, the Cats will unfurl the 2022 premiership flag, Cameron having been a key figure in lifting the club to great heights through his skill and what Lloyd calls his “killer instinct”.
Cameron will enjoy himself but only those closest to him have seen the work he has put in to become, according to many, the game’s best player.
“You have to work hard if you are going to make it and ‘Jezza’ is one of the hardest workers in the gym and out on the track,” Shaw said.
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