Fremantle recruit Jeremy Sharp spent four seasons at Gold Coast searching for a place to call home.
He looks to have found one on the Dockers’ wing just three games in at his new club.
Sharp, 22, a day-one signing in the pre-season supplemental selection period, has not only filled the offensive void left by Liam Henry’s departure to St Kilda, he might have added an important defensive layer.
Sharp has tallied more than 400 metres gained in each game, hit regular targets inside 50, and his work dipping back in defence and up and down a wing has bee a feature of the club’s three-win start to the season.
Against Brisbane in his club debut he produced a 72.2 per cent disposal efficiency, improving it to 84.6 against North Melbourne in round two and on Friday night against Adelaide, in a game where errors by foot and hand were the norm, Sharp went at 86.7.
But for Sharp it’s not about the numbers, but the number of times he can help his team.
“It is a bit of an unforgiving role out there,” Sharp told ABC Radio.
“Some games you will have 30 looks, others you will just have 10.
“But it is one of the roles where you have to be running smart defensive and offensive patterns. That is what the team wants me for.
“It has always been a strength for me, my ability to get across the ground.
“I have to keep backing myself in. I have obviously worked a bit over the off-season, finding a yard of pace and building that tank a little bit more.
“I am still young in my career but I will keep working on it.”
Sharp doesn’t care how the Good Friday win over the Crows looked – beautiful, ugly or papered over with Botox – it still produced a W and four points on the AFL ladder.
Fresh from recovery at Port Beach on Saturday morning, Sharp said coach Justin Longmuir spoke to the players about having to sometimes win ugly.
“JL spoke to us and said ‘Lads it’s just footy, not every game is going to be a clean, uncontested brand of footy and watchable on the eye’, but they are just the ones you just have got to win,” he said.
“Adelaide are a quality side. Not playing the football they want to at the moment.
“I wasn’t here but the boys said last year or in years gone by we might have dropped that sort of game.
“For us to play four quarters and get the job done and move on and get the four points, was a really important stripe for our group.
“With Carlton next week we will focus on them Monday or Tuesday but like JL said it is important we celebrate those sorts of nights.”
The Dockers trailed at quarter time for the third week in a row, but Sharp said there was no concern about slow starts.
“It has been a bit of a talking point. We are still starting games alright. Obviously, we are still not winning quarters at all but last night we had more inside 50s than them but we didn’t capitalise on the scoreboard.
“It is going to be a talking point but I suppose it is important we are playing four quarters at the moment and we are still getting the job done.
“Adelaide are a quality side. We knew they were going to come out swinging, they were coming off a couple of losses. We were expecting that, the physicality early from them.
“It is something we are still going to have to keep working on and probably a little bit of focus during the week.
“But we are running out on to the field with the right mindset.”
Sharp said it was still “different” playing in front of big crowds, such as the 51.,000-plus who watched Friday night’s 35-point win.
“To play in front of such big crowds is bringing the best out of me so far and the club has been huge, they have wrapped their arms around myself and my family which has been key. It has been a pretty smooth transition.
“To come back to Perth where footy is everything and people do take serious interest in your job and your day to day life it is certainly a bit of a change up.
“It’s a bit of added pressure but it’s pressure as a player you really like. You are expected to perform and play at the highest level week in, week out. That is something I am still adjusting to but absolutely loving it.”
Source Agencies
