By Mikayla van Loon
Kilsyth Football Club has been building a family focused and community first environment for the last few years now.
And nothing fits that brief more than a father and his two sons taking to the Pinks Reserve home ground to play in the reserves match on Saturday 6 August.
The Jacobs had the chance when youngest son Reilly was selected from under 17s to play in the reserves, oldest son Mitchell had a wedding so couldn’t play with the seniors and father Matthew was asked to fill in.
“I never really thought I’d have the opportunity to play with both of them. I’ve played some two’s games with dad over the last five or six years but to all three of us wasn’t something that ever entered my head,” Mitchell said.
“So this is really exciting for me because this will be my last chance to play with dad more than likely and hopefully, it’s just one of many that I get to play with Reilly.”
It was Reilly’s first opportunity to play senior football as well, having filled in for the under 19s on a few occasions but never being selected to play at the top level.
“It’s a bit weird but I’ve been filling in for a while, so it’s not too uncomfortable. It is different and it is really cool that we do get to play a game together,” he said.
Matthew said when his boys were growing up, there wasn’t much choice in whether they played football or not, so it was nice to see them, particularly Reilly, take on the sport as he had wished.
“When Mitch came up with this [six weeks ago], I thought absolutely, in a heartbeat…it is a bit surreal,” he said.
With family and friends coming to watch the game, Matthew said he was just hopeful to get a kick, while Mitchell and Reilly were aiming for the win against Nunawading.
Unfortunately, Kilsyth’s reserves lost by just seven points having trailed the whole game but the three Jacobs were all named in the best players for the day.
