Poyas primed for Jackas promotion

THE AJAX Football Club has received an enormous fillip, with the announcement last week that former AFL star Ezra Poyas will join the club in 2013 as a player and coach.

The boom recruit’s addition to the Jackas line-up is years in the making, with Poyas telling The AJN he’s looking forward to donning the red, white and black.

“The timing was right,” Poyas said.

“Ronnie Lewis [club vice-president] has been chasing me for years, so he was a big part.

“My dad played at AJAX, so that had a part to do with it as well, and I was always keen to finish my career at AJAX.”

The 31-year-old played nine games with Richmond between 2000-02, when he was delisted and won the JJ Liston Trophy for the VFL’s best player with the club’s VFL affiliate Coburg.

He was recruited by Melbourne in 2003, but delisted again at the end of the year. He went on to join VFL side Sandringham, where he played in two premierships and was named in the VFL representative team in 2007.

“It just didn’t quite work out,” Poyas said.

“There was a lack of opportunities I guess [in the AFL].

“My success in the VFL is something to look back on, but it wasn’t anything that I wanted to achieve, because I would’ve given it all back to play AFL again.”

After finishing up at Sandringham, Poyas joined St Kilda City in the Southern Football League and was named the league’s best player, before heading up to Queensland with partner Annabelle to play with Broadbeach in the North East Australian Football League, where he finished runner-up in the competition’s best and fairest, despite missing six games through injury.

“They were great years at St Kilda, good fun and good times,” Poyas said.

“Then we came back [from overseas] and we weren’t quite ready to come back to Melbourne yet and my parents also live up that way [in Queensland].

“So I went up there for the footy season … and it was a pretty decent comp, it was enjoyable.”

But now back in Melbourne, Poyas has joined the Jackas as a player and midfield coach and is looking forward to a successful 2013 season.

“We’ve got a big preseason this year, so I’ll be right to go for the Jackas in 2013,” Poyas said.

“We’re all about going to A-grade, that’s the goal and there’s no reason why we can’t.

“Working with Leigh [McQuillen] will be fun and hopefully we can develop a few guys and have a good year.”

Off the field, Poyas will work as a personal trainer at Jungle Gym in Caulfield, where he will train the Jackas during the preseason and also look to implement his own initiatives that involve specialised training for older and younger clients.

“I was doing personal training before I went away, but I left all my clients here,” Poyas said.

“So I’m starting again from scratch here at Jungle [Gym], which is great, so I’m just trying to build my clients up again and get my business up and running.”

Ashley Shenker

Photo: Peter Haskin