BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
BARRY Priest medalist Tim Jenkins is still eyeing a career in the VFL, but if he continues to play at suburban level it will be for St Albans.
St Albans coach Ian Denny, when he accepted the WRFL best-and-fairest award on behalf of Jenkins, said several clubs have made offers to his star midfielder, but Jenkins said he wanted to win a premiership with the Saints.
“As long as St Albans do the right things and do what Spotswood and Albion have done to get their club professional, I’ll play there,” Jenkins said.
“You don’t want to go through your whole career not winning a grand final, especially at St Albans where I’ve played all my juniors, my best mates are all there, they’re a great bunch of blokes, and we just want to win a flag.”
Jenkins’ reference to this season’s senior grand finalists is telling. He is aware of how much the club needs to improve to become a legitimate contender in the WRFL Division One competition.
“The thing with local footy is you’ve just got to make that next step or else you’re going to be around the mark, and I think if you look at the way Spotswood is run and how well they’re organized and the stuff they do, all the little things add up to them winning the grand final,” he said.
“I think that’s where St Albans are trying to make that change now, even thought its local footy, you’ve still got to be professional about it or you’re not going to get the results.”
Jenkins said the Saints failed to continue the momentum they worked so hard to create last year, when they exceeded expectations by making finals, and then winning an elimination final.
At the start of this season, St Albans was touted as a genuine premiership chance, but finished the season in mediocre form and was knocked out in the first round of finals.
“Coming into this season after the year we had last year where we overachieved in many ways, I think everyone in the club though it’s got to be our year, but to be honest we never really clicked and got it going,” Jenkins said.
