He was even awarded a free kick for head-high contact in a tackle that dislodged his headband that night. Footage of his coach Craig McRae celebrating the rare event did not escape the fellow small forward’s attention. “I’ve seen it about 10,000 times,” Ginnivan said. “It’s a bit of a deja vu from last year when I didn’t get the free kick.”
“I obviously didn’t come back the way I wanted to from Europe,” Ginnivan said. “Everyone got to work and, potentially, I was a little bit lazy, and needed that break, and didn’t come back as good as I wanted to.”Nothing was as guaranteed as it had seemed after his impressive form last season. Collingwood had added two experienced, hungry forwards, Bobby Hill and Dan McStay, to the list in the off-season.
He is smart but with Jamie Elliott, Brody Mihocek and McStay deeper he needed to be fit too, so he could connect the mids and defenders creating turnovers at half-back with scores or fellow forwards. Smart enough to read the cues and get dangerous, it was a role that required commitment, with his front-and-square timing, his forward 50 stoppage work and his finishing skills already elite. His ability to apply pressure and running power was where he could improve.
Before he knew what hit him, he became more than just a publicly recognisable face. He was suddenly an opinion divider, an antagonist, a showman, a fan favourite, an opposition’s villain, a talkback topic, an Anzac Day medallist, a Collingwood hero. He’s still adjusting. On Friday night when he travelled to Bendigo to watch his talented sister, Meg, be best on ground in a premiership with Castlemaine’s women’s team,his parents, Craig and Debbie, got a glimpse of their son’s world.
He is not silly. He knows the long sleeves, the baggy shorts and the headband make him stand out from the all-too-homogenous playing cohort, but he also says he is more comfortable playing footy in the style he developed as a youngster.But that does not mean Ginnivan is defiant.