Sam Jacobs was just a teenager when tragedy struck for the first time. Unfortunately, it wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n
In December, 2004, close family friend and fellow Ardrossan lad Nick Peterson, 18, was riding a surf board behind a boat when he was taken by two sharks off Adelaide\u2019s West Beach.<\/p>\n
To listen to the Soda Room podcast, click on the play button above<\/p>\n
His death created national headlines, sparked an overhaul of shark surveillance in Adelaide and rocked the small Yorke Peninsula town where Jacobs and Peterson grew up.<\/p>\n
The Jacobs and Peterson families were close. They used to holiday together. <\/p>\n
And so Nick\u2019s death, and its extremely public nature, hit the 16-year-old aspiring young footy star hard. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my first exposure to death and it was a really challenging time,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just about being there for your mates and being there for your family. Clearly we were all hurting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs, who went on to play 208 AFL games for Carlton, the Adelaide Crows and Greater Western Sydney, has opened up publicly for the first time about how he has coped with a litany of tragedies that have shaped his identity.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now 38, a father of three young daughters \u2013 Imogen, 7, Alba, 5, and Willow, 3 \u2013 and coaching top-of-the-ladder Woodville West Torrens in the SANFL. He sat down with Mark Soderstrom on The Soda Room podcast to tell his story and help promote the Eagles\u2019 blockbuster home game against Glenelg on Saturday, where the clubs will raise awareness about mental health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
He also wants to explain why he returned to play a game of country footy for his old club Ardrossan on Anzac Day, what he has learned from more than 20 years in the football industry and how he has overcome the death of six significant figures in his life.<\/p>\n
Jacobs was a rookie-listed 19-year-old at Carlton and preparing for a pre-season exhibition game against Fremantle in South Africa in 2008 when tragedy struck for the second time. <\/p>\n
He woke to a message from home saying another good mate from that close group of families in Ardrossan, Matt Black, had died.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe circumstances I won\u2019t go into too much, but once again, (it was) another tragic time for us as a community,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHere I am on the other side of the world trying to play a game in 12 hours\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt\u2019s sister was in my class. So just in my year 12 class I had two friends, one male, one female, who both lost their brothers in tragic circumstances. It was obviously a pretty challenging time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs, who grew up with the nickname \u201cFritz\u201d but is now known almost universally as \u201cSauce\u201d, debuted for the Blues in front of 87,000 people at the MCG the following year but moved back to Adelaide in 2011 where he established himself as one of the best ruckmen in the AFL.<\/p>\n
But tragedy continued to haunt him when assistant coach Dean Bailey succumbed to cancer in 2014 and then senior coach Phil Walsh was killed in July, 2015.<\/p>\n
He celebrated one of the happiest days of his life when he married fianc\u00e9e Izzy on New Year\u2019s Eve 2016, but their world was up-ended only a couple of months later when Izzy\u2019s father Mark died, also of cancer, in February.<\/p>\n
And then, on the eve of the 2017 finals series and after the Crows had finished minor premiers, Jacobs\u2019 brother Aaron, two years his senior, died from illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do sit there and wonder \u2018why me\u2019 and \u2018why does this happen\u2019 and all that sort of stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor anyone that\u2019s been involved in footy, your tentacles do stretch far and wide, so sometimes I think that plays a part, but it\u2019s something which, until my time\u2019s up, it probably won\u2019t ever make sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m here to say \u2018poor me\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s just part of my journey and I think that\u2019s one of the big things I\u2019ve learnt is your journey and your time in life \u2013 it is what it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big part of my life and it is a big of who I am and I\u2019d like to think the reason why I am who I am is because I\u2019ve managed these situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs says the ability to compartmentalise that helped him juggle his football commitments at times of grief was especially relevant when Aaron, 31, died just nine days before he helped the Crows to a dominant qualifying final win against GWS.<\/p>\n
The three-time all-Australian squad member says his thoughts and best wishes went out to current Crows captain Jordan Dawson, who has missed two of the past three games after the body of his elder brother Jaryd was found near their home in Robe.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy situation, coming to a final, I think was potentially a little bit different,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was another opportunity to hopefully win a premiership, so I wasn\u2019t passing this up for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there was a part of me that wanted to do it for Aaron, it wasn\u2019t my sole reason. I needed to do for myself as much as anyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really clear I was playing, so then it was about, \u2018all right, well then how do I then structure my week to manage this grief, but also perform\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perform he did. As he did again two weeks later, when the Crows stormed into the grand final via a 55-point preliminary final thrashing against Geelong. They lost the season finale to Richmond by 48 points at the MCG but Jacobs says the finals series gave his family a purpose and something to get excited about during their time of mourning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the time was right, I was gonna grieve properly, but I just managed it as I went and found a way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The tears started flowing after the final siren on grand final day and an image of Izzy comforting a distraught Jacobs in the changerooms dominated the front page of the next day\u2019s Sunday Mail.<\/p>\n
Despite that grand final heartache and his immediate emotional response, he looks back on that game with overwhelming positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing the footy head I am, I loved every minute of it, even the loss,\u201d he says. \u201cYeah, it sucks we lost and of course I would rather win, but I\u2019ve played in a grand final against a Richmond footy club who\u2019ve become a dynasty. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played in front of 100,000 in a grand final… performed in a grand final. I\u2019m pretty lucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cFooty\u2019s a big part of my life, absolutely, but you can\u2019t let your happiness be dictated to by a game of footy. I get sad when we lose. I get happy when we win. But I like to think that I\u2019m a pretty resilient person and I can move on pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs says he sought professional help to guide him through the toughest of times and concentrates on surrounding himself with the \u201cright people\u201d \u2013 both in times of grief and general life.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one of the messages he attempts to instil to his players at the Eagles, and why he does whatever he can to get back and help his struggling hometown footy club Ardrossan.<\/p>\n
The 202cm redhead retired from AFL after seven games with GWS in 2020, coached the Yorke Peninsula Football League\u2019s Kangaroos in 2021 but ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the final game of the season.<\/p>\n
He coached the Crows\u2019 SANFL side in 2022 and then became playing-coach at Flagstaff Hill, leading the Falcons to a Southern Football League premiership in 2023 before assuming the role of Eagles coach in the SANFL the following year.<\/p>\n
He has always maintained close ties with Ardrossan, which has been unable to field a B Grade team this season and lost its first three games by 218 points, 105 points and 156 points respectively. <\/p>\n
He played two games for the Roos in 2024 and when the Eagles were scheduled to play a Friday night SANFL game last month, he drove to his home town the following day to pull on the blue and white guernsey once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess in my position with my job (at the Eagles) I need to make sure that I didn\u2019t put myself in situations where I could get hurt,\u201d he says about the latest game, in which he played as a permanent forward and didn\u2019t move outside of the 50m arc.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was more about just being in the 50, being there to help some young guys coming through… create a contest, kick a couple of goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs says he grew up playing football and cricket on the Ardrossan oval and the town (population 1200) threw its support around him and his family when Aaron died.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccess at Ardrossan isn\u2019t just about premierships \u2013 it\u2019s having a club for the community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Jacobs was just a teenager when tragedy struck for the first time. Unfortunately, it wouldn\u2019t be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8988,395,404,8888,8997,124,1114,9000,8973,8999,23,133,9002,8977,8981,8994,9003,8990,8975,8987,8996,2205,8978,8971,580,8986,1280,8983,8980,6641,8509,8998,9001,8968,525,882,8969,8985,119,135,120,8984,8982,8967,8989,8972,1440,8974,8991,5163,5161,8893,121,8892,8979,8976,8992,8993,117,1438,8995,8970,1430],"class_list":{"0":"post-7643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-aaron","9":"tag-adelaide","10":"tag-adelaide-crows","11":"tag-africa","12":"tag-all-australian-squad-member","13":"tag-america","14":"tag-anzac-day","15":"tag-aspiring-young-footy","16":"tag-assistant-coach","17":"tag-assistant-coach-dean","18":"tag-australia","19":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","20":"tag-blockbuster-home-game","21":"tag-challenging-time","22":"tag-close-family-friend","23":"tag-coach-dean-bailey","24":"tag-coaching-top-of-the-ladder","25":"tag-eagles-head","26":"tag-elder-brother","27":"tag-final-game","28":"tag-final-siren","29":"tag-finals-series","30":"tag-football-commitments","31":"tag-football-industry","32":"tag-footy-club","33":"tag-footy-head","34":"tag-grand-final","35":"tag-grand-final-day","36":"tag-grand-final-heartache","37":"tag-greater-western-sydney-giants","38":"tag-home-town","39":"tag-hometown-footy-club","40":"tag-izzy","41":"tag-jaryd","42":"tag-jordan-dawson","43":"tag-mark","44":"tag-matt","45":"tag-nick-peterson","46":"tag-north-america","47":"tag-northern-america","48":"tag-oceania","49":"tag-paul-ashenden","50":"tag-phil-walsh","51":"tag-pre-season-exhibition-game","52":"tag-preliminary-final-thrashing","53":"tag-professional-help","54":"tag-richmond","55":"tag-sam-jacobs","56":"tag-season-finale","57":"tag-shark-attack-victim","58":"tag-shark-surveillance","59":"tag-south-africa","60":"tag-south-australia","61":"tag-southern-africa","62":"tag-southern-football-league","63":"tag-surf-board","64":"tag-three-time-all-australian-squad","65":"tag-tragic-time","66":"tag-united-states-of-america","67":"tag-virginia","68":"tag-yorke-peninsula","69":"tag-yorke-peninsula-football-league","70":"tag-young-guys"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}