BOLTON NOTCHES HIS CENTURY

BY KEN CASELLAS

Dynamic midfielder Jye Bolton continues to cast aside the frustration, disappointment and sheer devastation of failing to achieve his boyhood dream of becoming an AFL player as he maintains his standing as the WAFL’s pre-eminent performer of the 21^STcentury.

A true superstar of the game, the highly decorated Bolton will become Claremont’s 120^TH player in the club’s 96-year history to notch a hundred league appearances when he leads the Tigers into action against West Perth at Arena Joondalup on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Bolton joined Claremont in 2016 expecting to play for the club for two or three years if he wasn’t drafted. Every year since arriving in WA he has nominated for the AFL draft, but has been shunned despite his excellent credentials. He is now in his sixth season with the club and has no thoughts of retiring.

“I didn’t realize how good it was at Claremont, how good the people were, the teammates and men like Darcy Coffey, Grant Povey, Tony Evans, Brian Beresford, Tim Sullivan and Dollar Panizza, as well as everyone involved with the club,” he said. 

“That’s what has kept me here and I’ll keep playing while I’m enjoying it, and I won’t stop until my body doesn’t let me. I love it and I can’t see myself stopping anytime soon.”

The powerfully built Bolton has impressed at Claremont with his professionalism and recuperative powers in missing just one match in six years at the club, and that was a compulsory one-week absence because of concussion during the 2019 season.

Bolton is an elite runner with great endurance and he possesses an insatiable desire to win the ball, a tremendous attitude which matches his all-round skill.

Already he has left an indelible mark on WA football, winning the Sandover Medal in 2016 and 2018, the E. B. Cook Medal as Claremont’s fairest-and-best player in those years and the Simpson Medal a remarkable four times, three times as WA’s best player in interstate contests and for his magnificent performance when the Tigers lost the grand final by three points to South Fremantle last October.    

He was shattered when the Bulldogs snatched that victory, explaining that individual honors paled into insignificance compared to team successes. “Winning the Simpson Medal remains as a reminder that we lost,” he said.

“I have always been confident of being able to play well, but I definitely have been surprised at what I have been able to achieve on an individual standpoint. My main objective is to play in a premiership side, and that is still eluding me. To win a flag is the main reason why we play.”

The Tigers have won eight of their nine qualifying matches this year, but the players are not counting their chickens half way through the season. “The competition looks pretty even this year, but at this stage there are probably three sides that are making a claim for the premiership, and I’d like to think that we are one of them,” said Bolton. “There is a long way to go.” 

Bolton’s football journey has been a long and winding one, with setbacks and rejections failing to diminish his self belief and aspirations.

“Playing AFL has always been a goal of mine,” said Bolton. “I have always liked getting the best out of myself; I like to be the best. It’s sad that I haven’t been able to play at the highest level (AFL). On the other hand, there have been compensations. I have enjoyed friendships and relationships and now call Perth my home.

“However, it’s upsetting in regard to telling a 12-year-old me that I never played AFL. But it’s not upsetting to tell 29-year-old me that I haven’t, and that’s because of the great times I’ve had in State league footy which has made me very happy.

“I probably derive a lot of my motivation by trying to prove people wrong. I love to feed off people who say that I’m not good enough, and this has probably helped me to stay at a high level for a long period of time.”

Born in Geelong, Bolton made an early start in football, playing in Auskick ranks as a three-year-old before graduating to the Drysdale Hawks five years later. From the age of 14 he played for the Leopold club in the Geelong district competition.

The first of many snubs came when he was overlooked by coaches and missed selection in the Geelong Falcons in the TAC Cup competition, something which kept him out of the Victorian side in the national under-18 competition. This also prevented him from taking part in the State screening camps for prospective AFL players.

However, Collingwood, the 2010 AFL premiers, drafted him as a rookie for the 2011 season, mainly due to the strong recommendation of premiership captain Nick Maxwell, a former Geelong Falcons player.

Bolton played in Collingwood’s first four pre-season NAB Cup matches in 2011 (including the match against the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval) before being squeezed out of the side for the grand final in which Collingwood defeated Essendon.  And he was also unable to force his way into the Magpies league side which boasted the best midfield in the competition, a group which included Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan, Luke Ball, Steele Sidebottom and Dale Thomas.

He played in 16 matches for Collingwood in the VFL competition before being delisted at the end of 2011. Undaunted, he joined some of his mates at Werribee where he again found the going tough to get a senior game with a club which was aligned with AFL club North Melbourne. In 2012 and 2013 he played in only six senior matches and 24 in the reserves side. He also was a member of the Werribee side which lost to Claremont in the 2012 Foxtel Cup grand final at Subiaco Oval.

He earned a chance in the league side in the 2013 VFL preliminary final against Box Hill --- and starred with five goals in a losing side.

“I have not played in a reserves side since,” said Bolton, who finished second in Werribee’s league fairest and best award in 2014 and was named in the VFL Team of the Year. 

Misfortune struck Bolton in 2015 when he damaged a shoulder in the first quarter of a round-two contest for Werribee, forcing him to miss three matches. And then in a round-13 match he fractured a bone in his left foot, which required surgery to insert a screw to stabilize the foot. A fitness fanatic, Bolton missed Claremont’s early pre-season sessions before recovering in time to make his debut for the Tigers in the round-one contest against East Perth in the 2016 WAFL season.

Regarding his renowned fitness, Bolton said: “It probably started when I was quite young, building a really elite base of fitness. I found that what you do in your teenage years can set you up for your footy career.

“I used to put so much time and effort into my body and getting myself right. There is a lot of hard work that goes into playing well at a semi-professional level. Due to work commitments, I probably don’t work quite as hard now when I focus more on trying to help others.”

In recent years, and it has been particularly obvious this year, Bolton has been subjected to a fierce physical battering on the field, with opponents constantly tackling him, hurling him to the ground and then landing on top of him.

This doesn’t worry Bolton, who said: “I’ve put up with it for a few years; for me, it is just part of playing football. There are other guys out there who cop it as well.  You’ve almost got to be proud of copping attention like that. It obviously means that the opposition recognizes the influence you can have on a game. It used to bother me massively, but I’m used to it now.”

Bolton enjoyed playing under coach Michael Broadbridge during his first year at Claremont and said that he is loving working under Ash Prescott. “He’s got so much time and is so smart, footy-wise, and he is probably the best coach I’ve ever had.”

Discussing teammates he has admired, Bolton made special mention of former Werribee teammate Tom Gribble and Collingwood’s star midfielder Scott Pendlebury and said that Tigers teammate Bailey Rogers was a standout.

“Bailey is right up there,” he said. “I believe he is a better player than me when I was his age. I can’t believe that he hasn’t been given a chance at AFL level. I admire and have a lot of respect for anyone who sticks at their passion no matter how many times they get knocked back. It can be very demoralizing, and it can really play on your nerves.”

Bolton also praised Claremont teammates Lachie Martinis and Ollie Eastland for their professionalism, saying: “I played with Lachie in his first season and he was an absolute twig, and now he’s one of the strongest guys at the club. His work rate has been outstanding and he has changed his whole body. Ollie has also transformed his body through hard work.”

Bolton has donned the No. 11 jumper for Claremont with great pride and enormous commitment for six years, delighting Tigers fans with his strength, skill, stamina and single-minded devotion.