Sunbury premiership star Jay Cheep at his parents' home in Gisborne.
Cheep turned down lucrative offers to re-sign with the Sunbury Lions. Picture: Dennis Manktelow Source: Herald Sun
THE golden boy was glowing as half the town lunged to slap his back on one September day last year.
It was ecstasy, but Jay Cheep wasn't to know what a turbulent turn his life was about to take.
The 28-year-old had just led his Sunbury Lions to a Ballarat Football League flag they should have won a year prior, and he had churned about as good a game a footballer could ever dream of.
He was the hero, the king of Clarke Oval, and a Sunbury favourite son.
A familiar face since his junior days, Cheep, who now lives in Flemington, was a relative newcomer back at Sunbury after Victorian Football League stints at Coburg and Geelong, and a year at South Australian National Football League side Woodville-West Torrens.
He was once a Calder Cannon, almost became a West Coast Eagle, and knocked about as a junior with Geelong premiership star James Kelly.
Cheep spent four years at the all-conquering Cats, winning a 2007 VFL premiership and once standing in as the Cats' captain.
Some might say Cheep returned to the grassroots grade well before his time - the kid is out and out elite - but the lure of grabbing glory alongside great mates Jamie Lobb, Pat Cariss and Simon Clarke was irresistible.
But while he was flying as a footballer, Cheep was facing uncertain times in a floundering industry as a printing company's graphic designer.
And not long after Sunbury's flag, the mature-minded midfielder stepped away from the celebrations, hedged his bets and accepted a redundancy package.
The Sunbury playing-assistant confided in senior coach Rick Horwood, explaining to his supportive boss his football future may lie elsewhere if a lucrative offer emerged.
Horwood, ever across the local football scene, was certain many would.
"I was resigned to losing him," he said.
"The offers of money and jobs that a player can get are overwhelming, and obviously Jay is one of the very best."
And in a shot, word that Cheep was contemplating leaving Sunbury had spread like wildfire.
"It was strange how it gets out so quick," Cheep said.
"I really don't know. There are a few of those websites around and one of the players at Sunbury sent me a few comments that had been on Facebook.
"Once that had gone on I had a number of clubs talking to me."
Respectful and grateful to the circling clubs trying to land him, Cheep was reluctant to reveal the nature of such discussions.
He did, however, confirm rumours he allowed several Essendon District Football League Premier clubs to state their cases.
"It was basically the reason I was thinking about it. I need a job," he said.
"You owe it to yourself to listen to people and listen to offers."
Cheep won't reveal details of the financial offers that came his way but Leader understands offers of more than $1000 a game and a guaranteed job were commonplace.
Cheep had plenty of friends as he grappled with his future.
There was mum and dad, Steve and Carol, and girlfriend, Jem, but in the end it was close pal and mentor Steve Lewry who convinced him he belonged in royal blue.
"He basically just called me and asked me what on earth I was doing, and told me I should stay at Sunbury," he said.
Just what Lewry told Cheep is unknown but what the former Geelong runner could have said was he had every chance to immortalise himself at Clarke Oval.
An elated Horwood won't undersell just what a sacrifice Cheep, a footballer nearer the end than the beginning and a worker with a clouded future, has made.
And it's one Sunbury's faithful should never forget.
