WESTERN Jets excitement machine Josh Bench has capped a breakout season in the TAC Cup with the club champion award.
The tenacious youngster from the Albion Cats walked away from the club’s presentation night proudly wearing the Barry Round Medal, named in the honour of the western suburbs football icon and South Melbourne/Sydney Swans team-of-the-century member.
Bench joins the esteemed company of previous winners including former North Melbourne great Shannon Grant and AFL-listed players Mitch Banner (Port Adelaide) and Jayden Post (Richmond).
Jets coach Steven Kretiuk said that Bench had come a long way in a short time with the club.
“He came into our system quite late midway through last year. He’s come from a fair way back and to be in a position he’s put himself in is a credit to him. He’s a great kid and he loves his footy.” Bench is everything the Jets could asked for in an onballer. The 17 year old arrived as a hard in-and-under player despite his slight body frame.
Bench has become one of the most dynamic players at the club.
He is a blink-and-you’ll-miss kind of player. His speed off the mark is breakneck and his evasiveness in traffic is a real eye-catcher.
Bench has an uncanny knack of finding the goals and can do it from both long-range and acute angles.
It would seem the only knock on Bench is his stature.
He is relatively tiny in football terms at 172cm and 64kg.
Kretiuk said it would be a shame if AFL recruiters looked at Bench less favourably because of his size.
“Sometimes they can be a bit discriminative in terms of height, but I think there’s a role for those guys in the system, playing a small in-and-under, tackle game and what Josh has done is added a few strings to his bow.
“He can play in the midfield and be your clearance player, he can go inside 50 and tackle, he can break the lines and kick long goals. He’s got a bit of X-factor about him.”
