By Central Vic Footy on July 4th, 2008
While Superboot Jarrod Arentz has been well known in country football circles for many years he became a talking point all over Australia on Tuesday night when he dominated the E J Whitten legends game played at the Telstra Dome.
In what became a ratings bonanza for channel nine with the ever growing popularity of the annual match Arentz returned an impressive 5 goal haul although he admitted it wasn’t all smooth sailing with plenty of pre-match jitters ”It was alright until I hit the rooms, then I felt really nervous. Everybody was really welcoming, and Chris Connelly introduced me to everyone and made me feel comfortable. They were all a good bunch of blokes.”
Asked when he began to feel comfortable he said ”After the second goal, after nudging Richard Champion under the ball to take the mark. Then the nerves settled.
There was no shortage of support for the 32 year old talent with a bus load of 60 people making the trip down from Tooleybuc/ Manangatang the club where Arentz was a Premiership player last year and currently has 57 goals in the teams Premiership defence seemingly on a target to reach another ton.
Arentz brush with fame included a number of highlights on and off the field ”Andy Lee was a brilliant bloke and I even got to meet Megan Gale after the game. That was certainly a highlight.”
He has been a master of bush with close to 1650 goals in senior football having reached the magical 100 no less than on eight occasions. Arentz amazingly produced an 18 goal haul in Round 18, 1999 for North Bendigo in a match at Atkins St against neighbours White Hills. Former North Bendigo recruiting manager Scott Pysing reflected on the star forwards time with the club ” When Jarrod Arentz came to North in 1998 he was a revelation he had the strongest hands you would ever see and he was probably the difference between just making the finals that year and playing off in the Grand Final”.
Last Modified on 29/05/2013 11:58