Jake Brimmer tells KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies of the experiences and family ties that drive him to succeed.
You didn’t have to be a lipreader to understand what Neil Kilkenny was saying to Leo Lecroix, moments after the Western United centreback had given away a foul on the edge of their box in the semifinal against Melbourne Victory.
“No fouls!” Kilkenny was shouting, because he knew what was coming. Jake Brimmer stepped up, and the fact the freekick would hit the back of the net was a foregone conclusion.
That’s how good Brimmer has been this season, and why he won the Johnny Warren Medal at the Dolan Warren Awards on Thursday night. In the end it was a convincing margin from Daniel Penha at Newcastle and Jay O’Shea at Brisbane, both of whom could have been applauded winners. That, again, is how good Briimer has been.
The exciting thing is that Brimmer is only 24, with so much ahead of him (and for all that he has packed a lot into those 24 years, as our story below published before the first leg of the semifinals shows). This is a story to watch unfold.
You could call Brimmer a Tony Popovic project, and the Victory boss is reaping the rewards of investing time and effort at two different clubs into a player whose football intelligence makes him such a prized asset.
But it also speaks to the maturity of a player who at 24 has already lived a significant life and can feel the benefits of that feeding into his football – from moving across the world to sign for one its most famous clubs, to returning home to raise a family.
As Brimmer talks with joy about the effect of a Cochlear impant on his deaf daughter, it’s balanced by a recent diagnosis for his father Steve – the key figure in his football career – of motor neurone disease, something Brimmer is clearly still coming to terms with.
It was his father’s own experiences that led Jake to accept Liverpool’s offer of a trial and then a scholarship contract at 16, even though the attractions of just being a normal teenager growing up in Melbourne were shining brightly.
“I actually nearly didn’t go (to Liverpool) because I got dragged into the whole situation of my mates and going out at such a young age, and I nearly threw it away,” he recalls now. “Dad sort of hit the nail on the head – ‘You know what, I had this chance when I was younger, I didn’t take it. Make sure you don’t regret it’.”
Brimmer senior had not taken up the chance of a trial with a lower-league club in England, a decision that still resonated decades later. “That sort of opened my eyes a bit, I was like, what have I got to lose?
“It’s an opportunity I’ve dreamt of, playing at such a young age for a team that I’ve supported all my life through my dad. And so it all happened very quickly, to be honest, first a scholarship contract and then a professional contract.
“In the end it didn’t work out how I wanted it to but it was a good learning curve. It was very difficult at first because I hadn’t been introduced to the gym, whereas over there, you started gym at the age of 12 or 13.
“So the first year was quite difficult, because I was trying to get my body to adapt to how they do it over there.”
With his parents and brothers moving to Liverpool to give him family support in situ, Brimmer did well enough to be at Liverpool for three years, rising in parallel with his friend Trent Alexander Arnold and training regularly with the first team. That included selection in an U23 side for a game that was part of Steven Gerrard’s rehab from an injury, the English icon and the Australian teen stationed at the heart of midfield.
“I’ll be honest, I was very nervous; because Gerrard was just coming back from an injury, I knew he was playing and obviously I got the chance of a lifetime with the player of his ability to play with him and beside him. Once the whistle goes your mentality changes and you’re in the zone. I was a very confident young player but still… I just listened to him.”
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When Liverpool released him, Brimmer had the offer of trials in England and Germany, but he needed game time, and possibly a sense of security and belonging after three years overseas.
“It was just game time but I could say I was probably a bit homesick. At that point in time, mum and dad had said that they were making the move back to Australia. I had an opportunity in Germany but the language barrier stopped it as well. I wasn’t very comfortable.”
It was Kenny Lowe who first brought Brimmer back to the A-League but Tony Popovic who really began to turbo-charge Brimmer’s influence at games – first at Perth and now at Victory.
“I can’t speak highly enough of Tony, the boss,” he said. “Honestly, he’s helped throughout my whole career journey. He’s always there for you. He’s always helping you in any way possible with family issues, whatever it may be.
“He’s always putting you first and with the football part, you’ve seen it firsthand what he can do, what he brings to the table. When you have a team that buys into that, you can succeed.
“Exhausting is a good word, especially in preseason. You know, sometimes you might hate him for it, but you reap the benefits at the end of the day if you look at where we are now on the table, how much confidence we have.
“If you buy into him, you’re guaranteed to succeed. No matter where you finish on the table. No matter what you do, you’re guaranteed to get a chance to fight for trophies.”
That’s what is driving Brimmer the player, but Brimmer the person – and the parent – sees other reasons for excelling. After his parents sacrifice in moving to the UK to be with him at Liverpool, it is the next generation of Brimmers – Jake’s two children – who are in turn giving him inspiration.
“One of my daughters was profoundly deaf at birth, which was quite hard for me and my family at the time. We’ve sort of gone past this now, because she’s got a cochlear implant, but in recent times, my dad was diagnosed with MND.
“So it’s been quite a difficult time for me and my family. But I think that’s just made me grow as a player and as an individual.
“Dad’s come to every single game, mum and dad, my brothers as well come to every game that they can. For my kids, and my partner, and my dad and mom, there’s people that I want to make proud every single week.”
Maybe it’s a trick of the light, but Brimmer’s eyes seem to be shining particularly brightly as he relates his daughter’s progress since the implants were put in.
“She’s really good, she’s hearing more and more – and now she’s starting to talk as well. It’s amazing to see her make that progress, and I’m sure it is part of my form on the pitch.
“Putting on that jersey each week, going out and playing for them all, is really motivating.”
