Bartel Bell Park of the ball

WHEN Geelong charges out of the players’ race onto the field to face its opponents, Jimmy Bartel cautiously creeps.

It is the one superstition last year’s Brownlow Medallist has carried through from his junior playing days in Geelong, where he frequently played on a wet and muddy home ground that had a notoriously steep race.

“Players used to slip over with their long stops on, so I always used to just very carefully walk down,” Bartel recalls.

“So now whenever I play AFL football, I always seem to just walk out of the race when players go charging up there. I’m always at the very back trying to slowly come out.”

Bartel is still a familiar face around the Bell Park Football Club, which is just around the corner from home. And despite his accolades with the Cats since moving on from his junior club, he says there’s definitely no superstar treatment when he returns to see his old mates.

“They’re all people I grew up with and have been my mates since we all went to primary school together, so it’s just like old times,” he says.

Collingwood defender Nick Maxwell was a childhood friend. 

“They were pretty good days,” Bartel says.

“We went to school together (at St Joseph’s College) and played a lot of school football and it was great to see him make his way to AFL level.

“I follow all his games with a lot of interest because we’re still really good friends. But I don’t like it when he beats me when they play against Geelong.”

Having won a Brownlow medal and AFL Grand Final before the age of 24, Bartel has achieved the individual and team pinnacles that many players fail to reach throughout their entire careers.

So who does someone as lauded as Bartel aspire to emulate?

“Growing up in Geelong, I used to love watching Gary Hocking play,” Bartel says.

“He was part of the real success with Geelong sides in the early ’90s, but also Paul Kelly from the Swans, and even the Carlton coach Brett Ratten.

“I just like those sorts of players who played a really hard, fair style of football so I try to model myself a bit like that.”