Jack Hombsch: The AFL player who has been everywhere, man
To borrow a line from Johnny Cash: Jack Hombsch has been everywhere, man.
He's played at Perth Stadium, Jiangwan Stadium, Bellerive Oval and Adelaide Oval. He's been to York Park, Football Park, Traeger Park and Kardinia Park. He's done the MCG, SCG, Marrara and Carrara.
And that's just for starters.
On Sunday, the Port Adelaide defender will add yet another venue to his bulging list when the Power travels to Ballarat's Eureka Stadium to take on the Western Bulldogs.
It will be the 20th ground he's graced during his AFL career so far, per afltables.com data. That's a new league record, and one that's taken him by surprise.
"I didn't know anyone kept track of that stuff, but there you go," Hombsch said.
"One of the beauties of footy is you get to travel around a bit and see different parts of Australia that you might not normally get to."
Remarkably, Hombsch will achieve the new mark in just his 95th match. The two men with whom until now he's shared the record, Robert Harvey and Paul Salmon, played more than 700 games between them.
External Link: Jack Hombsch venues record tweet
"It's pretty interesting, isn't it?" Hombsch said.
"I was trying to work it out, and I think I've played at a new stadium almost one every four-and-a-half games."
In fact, Hombsch ticked off half his record itinerary in his first 10 matches for his previous club Greater Western Sydney, which were played at 10 different venues.
"My debut was at Sydney's Olympic Stadium, which was the Giants' inaugural game," he said.
"I think that's one I'll always look back on fondly and remember."
He also has a soft spot for the MCG, but he rates Adelaide Oval as his favourite ground.
"Obviously it's pretty iconic and a beautiful stadium, and being our home ground you get the best of it I guess," Hombsch said.
"The huge support we get from our home crowd makes it difficult for opposing teams."
Hombsch has accumulated plenty of frequent flyer points through his football travels.
According to data supplied by thearcfooty.com, he's travelled 129,843 kilometres over the course of his 94 games to date. That's more than 35,000 kilometres above what the average player of the same experience travelled.
"We do a fair bit of flying at Port Adelaide," Hombsch said.
"We've done some stuff with the NT, playing in the Alice and Darwin, and probably the weirdest one has been playing for premiership points over in China.
"Being with the Power has given me those sorts of opportunities."
Hombsch says he always looks forward to spending time on the road.
"I mean don't get me wrong, when you have home games it's certainty nice to be able to sleep in your own bed that night," he said.
"But I think it's just a bit of an adventure when you go away with your teammates for a couple of nights interstate I guess. We're pretty lucky."
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ABC .net
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