Two kids from opposite sides of Victoria made the big move to Sydney to help establish the AFL’s newest team and now, six seasons on, Jeremy Cameron and Devon Smith get set to play their 100th games together.
Jeremy Cameron arrived at the GIANTS in 2010 as one of the club’s 17-year-old access selections. He’d played just one season in the TAC Cup and resided in the tiny western Victorian town of Dartmoor.
The club’s then High Performance Manager and current Director of Coaching, Alan McConnell, described the youngster to the Herald Sun at the time.
“Jeremy is a power forward with a strong attack on the ball. He has done very well having spent little time in the talent pathway after only just being invited in to the TAC Cup program this year,” McConnell said.
At that point, Cameron had seen just one AFL game live in his life.
“It was really surreal when I started talking to the team at GWS, I mean hadn’t even been to an live AFL match then,” Cameron said.
“It’s going to be a massive move coming from a town with 150 people to end up in Sydney. But moving was just something I knew I would always have to do. Unfortunately, Dartmoor doesn’t have an AFL side.”
Cameron made the move and spent 2011 playing for Team GWS in the TAC Cup competition, pre-selected alongside the likes of Dylan Shiel and Nathan Wilson.
At the end of 2011 Cameron found a new friend when Geelong product Devon Smith was drafted by the GIANTS with pick 14 in the national draft.
The pair had met earlier that year on an AIS tour to Italy and the UK.
A small forward, Smith rocketed up the order pre-draft with Geelong Falcons regional manager Michael Turner telling the Herald Sun that the then 18-year-old’s attitude, professionalism, and attack on the ball made Smith the best small players to come through the club.
"Recruiters look really closely when the side is being beaten and we were getting smashed in the last round this year by 20 goals and he still had the ball 28 times," Turner said.
"I think he had the most tackles for us and got absolutely smashed a few times and just dragged himself up off the ground and got going again.”
Sharing their country upbringing and a love of fishing, Cameron and Smith became fast friends and could often be found out on the Parramatta River on their days off.
After the pair’s first full pre-season, Cameron and Smith made their AFL debuts on the same night in March, 2012 and from then, their careers have continued to align.
Both Cameron and Smith kicked their first goals in their second game in the competition, down in Hobart against North Melbourne.
That day Cameron kicked four of the team’s eight goals in a 129-point thumping and was rewarded with the club’s first NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.
Smith wasn’t far behind, earning his nomination in round 19 of that same year and playing 20 games for the season, while Cameron managed 16.
By mid-2013, over the first 22 games of their careers, only Tony Lockett, Chris Grant and Gary Ablett Snr had kicked more than Cameron's 44 goals.
2013 ended up being a breakout season for Cameron who earned the GIANTS’ first-ever All Australian honours in just his second season and went on to win the Kevin Sheedy Medal as Club Champion, kicking 62 goals for the season.
Smith was also impressive, playing 18 games and earning the GIANTS Standards Award, which he would go on to win again in 2015.
2014 was Smith’s turn to shine as he finished equal-second with co-captain Callan Ward in the Kevin Sheedy Medal and also picked up the Coaches Award.
Kicking 26 goals, he established himself as one of the best up-and-coming small forwards in the AFL. Smith missed just one game through suspension and was selected in the AFL Players Association's 22 Under 22 side.
That same season, both players notched the first milestones of their careers as they each reached 50 AFL games. Smith was first past the post, reaching 50 games in round 14. Just three weeks later, Cameron would reach the same mark.
While they’d taken similar paths during their early years at the GIANTS, Smith and Cameron took their connection to the next level early in 2015.
With the football world convinced that a raft of young guns were eager to leave Western Sydney at seasons end, the duo stood firm in their commitment to the GIANTS by signing contact extensions on the eve of the 2015 season.
Having been through some tough years and many heavy defeats, the re-signing duo weren’t about to walk away as the tide was turning.
They’d played key roles in setting the foundations and the culture of the GIANTS, and wanted to see this flourish in the years to come.
The announcement on March 6, 2015 was one of the most significant in the club’s short history and led to a string of other key re-signings in the ensuing months.
Over the past two seasons, Cameron and Smith have continued to solidify themselves as key members of the GIANTS’ best side.
Cameron has been the club’s leading goal kicker in each of the GIANTS’ five seasons in the competition and while 2016 was interrupted by injury for Smith, he joined Cameron in playing in the club’s historic first finals series.
The duo have both played every game this season with Cameron kicking 20 goals in the opening six games of the season and Smith pushing into the midfield, averaging just under 20 touches and four tackles a game, while also kicking eight goals.
Seven years after meeting Cameron and more than five for Smith, McConnell (the club’s first ever employee) has seen the two grow in their first 99 games and says the way they presented as teenagers has been indicative of their careers thus far,
“Jeremy’s development has been a slow burn, he’s got a little bit better every year until now when he’s probably had the best month of footy he’s ever had,” McConnell said.
“He’s slow and steady, which is symbolic of his nature as a person.
“Dev, on the other hand, was always in a massive hurry. My first recollections of him is a training session at Gipps Road Oval when we were doing a goal kicking drill and him dominating and just being demonstrative and vocal.
“How they’ve presented is how they’ve been ever since and it shows in the way they play now.”
Though they may differ in personality and their approach to the game, they remain firm friends and McConnell believes both are instrumental to the fabric of the GIANTS.
“They’ve both been really significant in the build of our clubs in totally different ways,” he said.
“Jeremy is a friend to everyone and a rock whether we win, lose or draw, his nature and his attitude stays the same.
“Devon, because he’s got high expectations of himself and those around him, has always pushed the envelope in his own development and that of the whole footy club.”
While they’re not the first to reach the 100 game mark for the GIANTS, fewer milestones have been more significant with two young stars leading the team out against St Kilda this Friday night at Etihad Stadium.
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Jeremy Cameron
Age: 24
Games: 99
Goals: 256
Best: 7 goals (Four times - Rd 18, 2013 v Collingwood, Rd 6, 2015 v Hawthorn, Rd 22, 2015 v Carlton, Rd 8, 2016 v Gold Coast)
Devon Smith
Age: 23
Games: 99
Goals: 93
Best: 5 goals (Rd 2, 2014 v St Kilda), 33 touches (Rd 3, 2015 v Swans), 14 tackles (Rd 19, 2016 v Richmond)
