By sports editor Russell Bennett
Kooweerup spearhead Jess Mathers is the first to admit he’s been sporting “a bit of a crude haircut” lately, with his curly blonde locks flowing out from under his baggy red and blue cap.
But recently his eldest son Fletcher put that into perspective. When they were sitting on the couch one night, Fletcher exclaimed: “Hey Dad, remember when you went to hospital and they took all your hair?”
All the big, angry fast bowler could do was laugh.
The weeks and months following the premature end to last cricket season were the hardest Mathers has ever had to endure.
The perception of him from those who don’t actually know him is fiercely disputed by those who do.
The brutal, intimidating on-field presence is a quiet, much more reserved family man off-field.
He keeps his circle tight, and it’s those within his tightknit group of friends and family who saw him through his darkest hours.
Mathers was diagnosed with testicular cancer after first noticing something was “different” just before Christmas 2019.
“I just let it go, like a normal bloke, like there was nothing wrong with me,” he said at Denhams Road on Friday, the night before the Demons took on his old club, Merinda Park, in a do-or-die final.
“I was still bowling 20, 25 overs and doing everything I’ve done, and I was still working no worries.
“As a normal bloke, I just didn’t think anything of it.”
Just days after the Demons were awarded last season’s WGCA Premier grade premiership – for being the highest-placed qualifier – Mathers went to have some scans done to see what was happening with his body.
He knew he’d left it too long.
“I had an ultrasound and then I had to wait for the results, but I knew something was wrong.”
Still, he’d almost managed to convince himself everything was fine – such is the mentality of a fit and firing family man in his early 30s.
“I was 31, and I wasn’t in any pain,” he said.
“That’s why they call it a silent killer, because you often don’t know you’ve got anything, but if you do read into everything about testicular cancer, it often doesn’t hurt, it’s the same as a cist – it feels the same but one of the factors is that it often won’t hurt.
“In the family cancer has been around, but as a 31-year-old, fully-healthy male you’re thinking there’s nothing wrong.”
At the time, Mathers and wife Meaghan’s youngest of two boys – Ollie – was just over 12 months old.
“We got a phone call to say they’d found a large tumour,” he said.
“That was on the Tuesday, and I was booked in to see the urologist on the Wednesday.”
The doctor brought up the image on the screen. Mathers couldn’t bring himself to look at it, but the doctor told him “there’s a 98 per cent chance it’s cancerous”.
“They said they had an opening on the Monday for surgery, so I said no worries – let’s do it,” Mathers said.
“I had to have a CT scan before the surgery just to check all the organs. Mine went from my neck to my pelvis.
“I was freaking out at this point – I hate going to the doctor’s as it is, probably like a typical male. I think that was the first time I’d been to see the doctor in five or six years.”
Prior to that Mathers said he’d only go to the doctor if he was in pain – like most blokes.
And that’s exactly why he’s made the call to speak up now, at the busiest time of the cricket season.
He’s urging all blokes to take much better care of their health – to listen to their bodies.
“Driving to hospital for the surgery I was thinking I could easily just keep driving straight past,” Mathers recalled.
“We pulled in and walked inside, and I had to get scanned in with the temperature check and sit in the waiting room and it was ‘see ya later’ to Meaghan because of Covid.
“So I was sitting in there by myself, and my mind goes a million miles an hour as it is. “I need to be busy, and if I’m not I’m freaking out about things.”
Again, this is in stark contrast to the fierce, ruthless competitor on the cricket field – the big game performer who’s claimed three Lex Duff medals as the player of the WGCA Premier grade grand final since making the switch to Kooweerup from Merinda Park.
He’s always relished the chance of testing himself against the best on the big stage, and sport has been his great escape.
But there was no escaping his biggest battle off-field.
In hospital before his surgery, his blood pressure and heart rate were off the charts.
He was then told he had an enlarged lymph node in his abdomen, so his thought process immediately became: “What if it’s spread?”
Most throughout the WGCA have been completely unaware of Mathers’ battle, which spanned much of the off-season leading into 2020/21.
“Two weeks before the surgery I was bowling 25 overs in a game, thinking I was fine,” he said.
“But in the long-run it was my own fault for not getting checked out earlier.”
And that’s the main lesson Mathers has learned – no one is invincible.
“On the cricket field I feel I am, but as soon as I walk off it’s not like that at all,” he said.
“I’m a pretty loyal, honest type of bloke who loves his family to bits.”
It’s only when speaking about his wife and sons, his immediate family, and his close network of mates that Mathers’ often stone-cold façade breaks.
“That’s what people say – when something is wrong, you’ll work out who’s really with you. And none of my mates, or my family, ditched me,” he said.
“I worked for myself for maybe 10 years, and the one thing you regret about that is the times you weren’t there at home.
“These days I’m home more with Meaghan and the kids, and it’s way better.”
Mathers said he’d never been told what stage his testicular cancer was. But he has a fair indication, given how hard and fast his treatment was.
Following his surgery, every fourth week he had five straight days of chemo, with other sessions thrown in the mix.
He also had to inject himself on Saturdays, which he actually had to get Meaghan to do.
“A lot of people know if I put my mind to something, it doesn’t matter how hard it is, I’ll get it done,” he said.
“I attacked this like I was playing a grand final. I got through it… but that mindset only gets you so far.
“Still, I was always going to beat this. The words from the oncologist at the start were: ‘You’re not going to die, but it’s going to be a shit three months’.”
Mathers turned 32 on 22 July last year, and his last chemo treatment was on the 21st.
For months, hardly anyone outside of his immediate circle knew of the battle of his life.
“Even Fletch (Jess and Meaghan’s eldest) – we just told him I’d had a sore stomach and he and Ollie weren’t allowed to jump on me when they saw my scar.
“When I was told I’d need chemo, I’d cut my hair right back so it wasn’t a scare for them to see me lose it.”
Mathers had his surgery and three-and-a-half weeks of blood tests before he’d told anyone about his battle.
He didn’t want people to worry.
But those in his corner stuck fiercely by his side, as they always have.
Many of them are former Merinda Park club mates.
On Friday night, leading into Saturday’s do-or-die final between Kooweerup and Merinda Park, Mathers said he’d have a smile on his face if the Cobras went on to achieve the remarkable and win this year’s title. That wasn’t to be, with the higher-placed Demons advancing after the rain set in, but he meant every word of it.
The club he made his first XI debut for at just 14 will always be in his heart.
Mathers said his battle has given him a fresh perspective on life, and what really matters.
“It doesn’t faze me anymore. If someone has a crack at me on the field, I know I’ve dealt with more crap than they could give me,” he said.
“The only time I get frustrated is on the eve of a three-month scan, and they’ve coincided with bad games this season. I’m an angry man in those times.
“But the boys know what I’ve been through, and they know I’ll keep stepping up for them.
“I remember my old man said to me on a grand final morning when I was playing footy at St Francis: ‘Oi son, good players play well in big games’,” Mathers said.
“I’ve always taken that to heart, and I like to think I have.
“I’m not the best player out there, but when it counts I tend to step up.”
Just like he’s stepped up for his biggest battle so far.
Mathers and his Kooweerup Premier XI team mates will lock horns with the Gulls at Tooradin on Saturday for the right to take on Cardinia in the grand final.
