Thought you knew Chris Tarrant?
Think again.
We’ve trawled the archives to find some of the gold nuggets that represent Chris Tarrant’s 15-year career.
We start in the December 1997 edition of the In Black and White magazine, which featured a shot of Mal Michael at pre-season training on the front cover.
The magazine profiles several of Collingwood’s new recruits during the 1997-98 off-season, including Ben Kinnear, the late Jamie Tape, James Wasley and Troy Kirwen, as well as a fresh faced 17-year-old called Chris Tarrant.
Where did you live?
Mildura
What club were you with?
I was with South Mildura but I won a scholarship to Bendigo this year and played with the Bendigo Pioneers.
Did you barrack for an AFL club??
Yes, I followed Geelong.
What did you think about being drafted to Collingwood?
I was rapt. To come to such a great club was tremendous.
How have you found the club?
I only came down on Monday, two days ago. I had to finish my exams in Bendigo.
Which exams were they??
I was doing Year 11 and I have to do Year 12 next year. I was drafted as a 17-year-old.
Which school did you go to?
Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
Will you be able to combine football and school next year?
Yes, I’ll find a school here and complete my VCE. The club knows I’m doing that. School is to come first in 1998 and then footy after that.
What is your favourite position?
On the half forward or half back lines.
What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses?
My strength is probably my marking and a weakness is my lack of strength. I need to build up a bit. I think my agility is fairly okay.
What do you hope to achieve in your first year?
Well, I’d like to play at least one senior game.
What family do you have and where do they live?
They are in Mildura. I have three brothers, Robbie 8, Matt 19 and Jamie 21, and a sister, Kathy.
Where are you living in Melbourne?
Tomorrow I move into the property steward’s home, the home of Billy Cook.
Editor: I’m sure you’ll be happy there. Marilyn and Bill Cook are great people.
In season 2000, Tarrant took two weeks off at the beginning of the year in a move that caused a stir in the Melbourne media.
But as he told collingwoodfc.com.au in May 2000, the break did him a world of good.
"Now that I look at it, the break was probably beneficial to me," Tarrant said.
"It freshened me up I suppose. When I came back I wanted to play football and if I had just kept pushing through it (the pre-season) it probably would have affected my footy. At that time I didn’t have my mind on the job and obviously I didn’t think I was going to be of any benefit to the team.
"I had had enough of the pressures of whatever goes with being an AFL footballer. Being a kid from the country and being pretty laid back, I suppose...the pressures for a young bloke just got a little bit too much.
.jpg)
Tarrant has his portrait taken ahead of the 2002 season.
"But I had a lot to do with Mark Kleiman, who is our welfare manager down at the club. I am friends with him outside of football so I was in contact with him a fair bit and he helped me a lot during that period of time."
According to collingwoodfc.com.au, Tarrant admitted he was a little nervous when he arrived back at Victoria Park, but said he was determined to put in extra work to convince teammates he wanted to play football.
"I was a little distant at first I suppose because I wasn’t sure how the boys would take me for leaving," he said. "But they were great when I came back, which made it a lot easier for me.
"I did try to work hard when I came back but I hurt my knee at the second training session that I was back, which put me out for three weeks. That made it a little more difficult trying to get back into the swing of things and that was why I missed the first game."
The star on the cover of the April 2003 edition of In Black and White.
Ahead of the 2003 season, Tarrant chatted to In Black and White’s Peter Ryan about his hopes for the year ahead, and addressed the misconception that he had a laconic approach to playing football.
“There’s not one second you go out on the footy field and don’t try 100 per cent. In footy there’s a little bit of luck involved. There are games when everything’s happening for you and other games when it’s not”.
Sport Science Director David Buttifant also revealed how close Tarrant came to missing the 2002 Grand Final due to a knee injury suffered in the first quarter of the Preliminary Final against Adelaide.
“It was a pretty severe episode when it happened - hyperextension (of his knee) affected the posterior lateral capsule and he had to work pretty diligently to rehabilitate. He did extremely well to get back on the track and play the way he did in the Grand Final.”
.jpg)
Posing for a pre-season photo at Victoria Park. Photo: Brian Carr.
During the ’03 season, Tarrant began taking questions on collingwoodfc.com.au in a segment titled ‘Talking with Taz’.
We’ve compiled the best of Talking with Taz from the 2003 season below.
Are you going to the Brownlow Medal?
I am. I‘m heading off tonight. I’d much rather not go. But I’ll turn up and do what I have to do there and get out of there. I’ve known for a month, a fair while. I don’t even know what I’m wearing yet and it’s tonight. ??I don’t think I’ll wear a tux. There’s zero chance of me winning it, so I’ll just…there won’t be too much focus on me so I’ll just wear a suit and tie I think. ?
I’ve been before and I think you can just wear that. I think if you’re one of the favourites you probably wear a bow tie or something. ??There’s me, Scotty Burns, I think Anthony is going, Bucks…??I’ve won club best and fairests, but I haven’t one any medals or anything like that.??Winning a Brownlow is probably a lot bigger than a club best and fairest in terms of how the football public sees it, but when you get the club best and fairest, it’s a pretty big honour, because you have to be so consistent in the eyes of the players and the coaching staff.
Leon Davis' popularity
?He is, he’s a popular fella. And everyone knows he’s had a pretty tough year with his own personal issues as well. And everyone knows that he can play. ??He’s played some really good games in the VFL. It’s just a case of getting him back in there to show what he can do. ??I certainly enjoy having him there. I work pretty well with him and he’s got fantastic skills, so if he’s got the ball, nine times out of ten he’s going to hit you. He’s great to have in the side. It’s good for him and it’s good for the team as well.
Has he been a victim of the Magpie pranksters (Ben Johnson, Mark McGough and Heath Scotland)?
?No, they stay away from me actually, the boys. It’s just a little group that likes getting each other. I try to stay out of that because once you get in there, there’s no turning back! ??Scotto is the retaliation person - everyone seems to get him and he’ll just try to get them back. But I don’t think he starts too much. ??‘Goughy likes to start it with Johnno - they’re the main culprits, I think. It’s mainly things on phones, with text messaging. They’ll go through your phone list and text everyone in there, with whatever they want to say. So by the end of the day, there’s 25 or 30 messages on your phone…it’s usually not good stuff!
Becoming an All Australian player
?I was told a couple of days ago. They had the function Tuesday night, so didn’t have the chance to go, but we went and did a live cross. We got back about 11.30 after driving up there and back. ??Obviously I’m pretty happy - what do you say? I honestly hadn’t thought about it too much. ??Because State of Origin hasn’t been there for awhile, you don’t think about it too much. ??Being All Australian is something to be pretty proud about, I suppose. If you had’ve said at the start of the season that I’d be All Australian at the end, I wouldn’t have believed you.??I’ve had a pretty consistent year, so it’s good to be rewarded with something like that, I suppose, with all the hard work I’ve put in this year.??Prize for winning mark of the year?I think the prize is an entertainment unit…. I play quite a bit of Play Station and I watch a fair bit of TV, so it will get a fair bit of use
Rupert Betheras does yoga. Have you tried anything like this??
I’ve been playing AFL for 6 years now, so I know what I have to do.?I generally pull up pretty well, I’m only 23. I know that as you get older it generally takes you longer to recover, so I’m sure I’ll be changing things as I get older. I chat every now and again with (fitness co-ordinator) David Buttifant about stuff.
Being Collingwood
?I think the first few years, people started to feel a bit sorry for us, we were down the bottom and they wanted to see Collingwood back up the top. ??But now that we’re back up there, it’s back to the good old times, which suits us pretty fine, because we enjoy that. With Eddie leading the way as well, it probably makes it a little bit more, people disliking us.??Joffa?I saw it on the replay of the game He’s good, isn’t he? He’s in good form!
Reflecting on a lean past now that the Pies are in the finals?
For sure. I mean I was here six years ago and we’ve finished last and second last, stuff like that. Even though I wasn’t playing regular senior footy…in your early days, it’s more trying to find your own groove with AFL footy. ??Win, loss…it probably doesn’t affect you as much as when you are a regular senior player and you’ve been playing for a few years. ?In the early days, it was hard, but if it was happening these days, it would be a lot harder. ??Second on the ladder…half way through the season, we probably wouldn’t have thought we could do it. But we have had a really good second half of the season. Finals footy is really what you play for. ??People are going to their last game of footy this weekend, their last training and we know we have got another good month in front of us. Finals footy is different…it gets a little warmer and you know you’re playing for something now, so it’s good
THAT Sunsilk advertisement
I haven’t seen it yet. I have seen it on the computer, not the TV, not sure if it’s out yet. We did that last month for the footy club. It was a new sponsor they got on board, they just needed some players for it, to get something back.??It was me, Wakes, Woey, Didak, Clokey…five or six of us. It was only pretty easy. The ad only goes for about ten seconds and we were there for about five or six hours.??I probably won’t be doing that again, I don’t think. Ours didn’t go for that long, but I can’t see myself doing too many more of them. Especially when I see how it’s come out, I’m probably terrible!??It’s just a bit boring, waiting all the time, for them to set up. ?The takes weren’t too bad, it was pretty easy. It was just a matter of setting up stuff and pretty much waiting around.??I hadn’t done anything like that before and they asked me to do it and I haven’t done much for the club lately.
Back in town and back on the cover of In Black and White in April 2011.
That mark (the 2003 Mark of the Year against Geelong) and the crowd reaction?
Yeah, it was so much of a blur. You know I had a pretty good ride, because I sort of sat there for a little bit and I could hear the crowd in the background as well. ??You just know, you can just tell that it feels alright. It’s always good, especially if you’re close to the boundary so close to the crowd as well, it’s good.??It was good when we starting to come back, when the crowd starts to get right into it, it’s great. ??They were I could hear a fair bit of stuff going on down there. It’s good for the players because it pumps you up a little bit as well. You feel you have to go out and do something.
Best mate at the club?
?I spend most of my time with Benny (Ben Kinnear). He’d be probably my best mate down here at the club. I see a fair bit of him a fair few nights during the week, during our off days we muck around.??I tend to hang around with some of the older boys from around here that aren’t here anymore and they’re sort of still around town.??
I don’t talk to Kingy (Clinton King, now with Richmond) as much as I used to. Every time I catch up to him nothing has changed, but I tend to catch up with him more off season a fair bit more. They train different days, have different days off, so it makes it a bit hard.??I muck around with Brad Oborne and Brad Fuller who were here. They’re mates I muck around with. They both don’t play anymore. Injuries are stopping them from playing at the moment.??It’s a little tough having mates leave the club. But you still see them around town, so it’s not a big drama. At least they’re not interstate, so you can still catch up.
