Bolton’s memorable milestone

By Ken Casellas

Jye Bolton has attacked the football with ferocious intent throughout his distinguished career for Claremont, with his sheer brilliance, hard running, courage and total commitment earning him the accolade as the pre-eminent WAFL player of the 21^ST century.

At Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday the 31-year-old Bolton will chalk up his 150^TH league match for the Tigers in the round 20 match against Perth and earn life membership of the club.

The powerfully built midfielder has delighted football fans over the past eight seasons with his passion, his vigour and single-minded focus on guiding Claremont to victory. He has gathered his 2826 kicks without fear or favour, and he has fired out 1535 handpasses, taken 811 marks and applied 478 crunching tackles.

He is now in the twilight of a glittering career which has earned him the distinction of being ranked as one of the greatest players in Claremont’s history. But he has yet to achieve his greatest ambition of helping his teammates to win a premiership.

If the Tigers beat Perth on Saturday, they will be guaranteed of playing in the finals. Bolton has experienced the pain of playing in two losing grand finals --- losing to South Fremantle by three points in 2020 and to West Perth by two goals last year.

He describes the feeling of losing those grand finals as horrific. “There are a lot of emotions that come over you,” he explained. “It’s something that I don’t really want to experience again, getting so close to rewarding not only the playing group but the greater club, the volunteers, staff, board members and sponsors.

“You want to reward them all, and it would be good if we could do that. I’d love to play in a premiership, and that’s the goal. This year we have to win four or five games in a row, and that’s the challenge ahead.”

Regarding his future, Bolton said: “At this stage, I don’t really know. I don’t want to be one of those guys who lets everyone know that they are going to retire, mid-season. I assess everything at the end of each season when I process the whole season and see if I’m ready to commit to another year.

“I am also working hard in my career outside of footy, working as an investment advisor and portfolio manager with Euroz Hartleys.

“I expect to have some involvement in football in some way or another once I’ve finished my playing days. I feel that I have built up a fair bit of knowledge of the game, and it would be a shame to park that and waste it. But at the same time, I’m pretty focused and committed to my career outside of footy as well.”     

Bolton is highly professional, and it is his attitude in preparing diligently in mind and body that has seen him miss only two matches in his eight seasons with Claremont --- once when he was suffering from Covid and the other time when he was recovering from concussion after being knocked out in a match against East Perth.

He has no secret about how he maintains his high level of fitness. “I think that playing a lot of sport all my life and keeping active during the off-season has helped,” he said. “I played so many different sports as a kid. I played a lot of cricket as a junior, as well as swimming and playing basketball, tennis and indoor soccer.”

Bolton’s remarkable list of achievements includes winning the Sandover Medal in 2016 (his first season in the WAFL) and 2018; winning the E. B. Cook Medal as Claremont’s fairest-and-best player in 2016, 2018 and 2022; and winning the Simpson Medal four times --- against Tasmania in 2018, against South Australia in 2018 and 2021, and for his brilliant performance in the losing 2020 grand final against South Fremantle.

And added to that amazing list is that Bolton has finished runner-up to teammate Bailey Rogers in the 2021 Sandover Medal as well as finishing sixth in 2017, fourth in 2019, sixth in 2020 and 17^TH in 2022. He has also finished second in Claremont’s fairest-and-best award three times --- to Bailey Banfield in 2017, Alec Waterman in 2020 and Rogers in 2021.

Bolton dreams of playing in a premiership side alongside Rogers. “I love working with him,” he said. “I have built up a really good relationship with him, and it has been awesome to see his growth as a player and as a person.”