Jezza’s Journal: West Coast Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern speaks on his team’s top four hopes, the whole AFL industry in one hub and a radical idea on awarding the Brownlow Medal

West Coast Eagles vice-captain Jeremy McGovern is keeping his home town Albany during the final few weeks of this unprecedented AFL season. Read Jezza’s Journal every Thursday in the Advertiser. Hub life is in full swing, and just like that, we have three games left in the regular season. Looking back to the Richmond game, that was a great contest. We really fought it out and went down swinging. Richmond are one of the better sides in the competition and we couldn’t quite handle their pressure. We had to respond on Tuesday night and it certainly wasn’t a pretty game. The Bombers had their season on the line so we knew they come out hard and we did what we had to do to get the win. It was a really important result for us to keep that top-four hope alive. We’ve just got to win as many games as we can from here on to give ourselves an opportunity at something great. Yesterday was actually nice to get a sleep-in, given how full-on it’s all been. With the game played so late, we didn’t get back to the hotel until 12.30am. We had the morning to ourselves, got a sleep-in and then did our proper team recovery in the afternoon along with a few meetings. I got a couple of decent knocks and rolled my ankle in the Bombers game so recovery will be big for me this week. The week will be mainly recovery and one light training session. We will review the game and then quickly prepare for the Doggies. The fitness staff and medicos are all over how each of us is feeling and making sure they have us cherry ripe come finals. It’s hard just to push guys through at this stage of the year with the short turnarounds, so there is a lot of management of minutes and loads in the days between games. I tweaked my ankle a bit and with a short break, nothing is guaranteed but I’ll do everything I can to get up. Hub life second time around is treating us well. We are staying in a beautiful spot and we know what we are up for in this second stint. The locals don’t seem too happy we are here, but there is not much time to sit around and think about it all. I had a hit of golf last week and I’ll try and catch up with my brother Mitch for a coffee. I can also confirm there is a pinball machine and Bunga has already set a new high score. Downtime is essential and we’ll do our best to keep the boys’ balance right. The finals and the end of the season have really been creeping up on us. It felt like we had a decent chunk of the season left but there are only three games to go. I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully we are in a position to go deep into the finals. This whole year has been strange and different, so you can never be surprised with anything that happens. We are seeing a lot of other players and teams with basically the whole AFL here in a hub. We have got North and GWS boys here with us and you are rubbing shoulders with everyone. It’s a little bit awkward at times, but these are the circumstances. For me it’s not a bad thing having a chat with different guys who you normally wouldn’t ever speak to. A night grand final is also another weird one. The AFL had to make a decision and that’s what they landed on. It would have been great to have it in WA, especially financially for the industry. I’m not sure what they have decided for the Brownlow Medal but personally I’m not big on it all. Obviously a big event is ideal for fans and the media. Personally, I’d just be happy if they sent out a text message to all the players to announce who the winner was.