THE MANE MAN

Jack Sinclair’s first conversation with his new coach wasn’t about the footy.

Perhaps it is another sign of his new, cuddly approach that Ross Lyon, like so many in footy, first wanted to discuss his new half-back’s luscious mane –Scotch College-style short sides at the front, full-flowing mullet at the back.

“I’d been away so I missed his presser here when he was first announced, so I just introduced myself and he said, ‘Oh, your hair’s long, isn’t it?’” Sinclair recalled of their first meeting the opening day of pre-season training at St Kilda last summer. His hairstyle is a remaining vestige of 2020, when the Saints relocated to Noosa for the duration of the COVID-affected season.

Perhaps former teammate Dean Kent can be credited (or blamed depending on your taste in hair) but he was the appointed in-house barber at the Saints and he was cutting the players’ hair.

“I just started growing it out really because of that and he kept giving me a little freshen up on the sides,” he said.

“After that I just kept growing it and maybe, I think it was February 2021, I just cut the top and left the back.

“There was never a moment of real inspiration. I just wanted to do something different.”

It might also be a touch of rebellion.

“Being a Scotch College boy, I had to keep it pretty clean for all my school years,” Sinclair said.

“I probably didn’t think it was going to hang around, but yeah, here we are three years later.”

ASHLEY BROWNE

BEFORE AND AFTER:

Sinclair preferred a short-look hairstyle back in 2016 (top) but now his locks are of the free-flowing variety.