Jess Trend was an enthusiastic eastern suburbs netballer who became a footballer and sports podcaster. She is a qualified primary school teacher with four years of classroom experience now working as a Workforce Coach Development Officer for Netball Victoria.
She is also living what has just become a not-so-secret life: Trend last year paused her AFLW career with Fremantle via two seasons and 14 games at North Melbourne to become one of the 26 housemates in the 13th series of rebooted reality TV show Big Brother.
“It’s a bit of a package, isn’t it?’’ the outgoing 29-year-old admits with a chuckle. “I think every aspect of my life brings something that can add value to who I am.
“Obviously with teaching I love to inspire and help younger people - but also people my age and even older - by just being exactly who I am and making sure that everyone around me knows that it is OK to be who you are.
“With the sporting world it’s just the professionalism that I absolutely adore; putting in all the effort and the 100 per cent intensity that you can offer as a person to get you as far as you possibly can. But it’s also like a whole new family, as well.
“And now this new role with Netball Victoria, it’s pretty wicked, because obviously I get to use different skills of my life. I’ve got a lot of experience with media, even pre-Big Brother, and having my own little AFLW show with the AFLW Instagram and then bringing in my teaching experience and my sporting background.
“I think there’s a lot I can offer for who I am and what I can do in this role.’’
As sport emerges from the Covid shutdowns, and confidence cautiously flowers again, that involves helping to organise and run programs for foundation, development and intermediate-level coaches, to ensure ongoing education and skill development.
For Trend, it allows her to combine her educational background with her first sporting passion, sown as a seven-year-old playing for her local club Park Orchards at H.E. Parker Reserve in Heathmont.
From juniors, the midcourter progressed to the MENA rep side, then to Melbourne Waverley for a stint that included a tournament trip to Hawaii. It was in 2012, when Trend was 21, that footy beckoned.
"I’ll always love netball, I appreciate the athletes within netball and I just love women’s sport.’’
That includes, finally, Australian football, Trend’s grandfather Ray Yeoman having played 74 games for Hawthorn in the 1950s. What started for Trend in a playing sense with the Eastern Devils was interrupted by the first of two ACL tears in 2016, then continued with Essendon and the Hawks in the VWFL, before she was drafted by the Kangaroos in late 2018.
Then, after two seasons at Arden St, her successful request for a move west to Fremantle was put on hold last October when the understanding Dockers placed their recruit on the inactive list to pursue what it cryptically described at the time as "a private opportunity outside football’’.
So what was all very hush-hush at the time has now been revealed: Trend would join the cast of Big Brother 2021 and vie for the $250,000 first prize.
“My mate messaged me the ad in July, and was like ‘oh you should apply for this’,'' she recalls. "I was like ‘nah, because it’s exactly the same time as footy’, and she was like ‘just apply, and see what happens’. And I was like ‘yeah, that’s fair’.’’
Trend, who acknowledges her sporting background was a definite plus during the application process, sent in a video of her life story and then another explaining her values and family background. Her spot was confirmed in September, and she lived in Sydney from October to December while the show was filmed at Manly’s North Head.
Which is not giving anything away about how it all unfolds, for that would be breaching confidentiality.
Non-spoiler alert: the bubbly brunette with the distinctive tattoos? That will be Trend. And no surprise, of course, if she ends up #trending by the time the series is done.
As to what she took from the experience: "Just a lot of resilience and growth, definitely. I found out that I was a lot tougher than I thought I was.
“My partner Rhiannon, who was a good friend pre-Big Brother, she’d taught me a lot about standing up for myself, and I’m very thankful to her because when I entered that house, it just naturally came out that I was able to stand up for myself and for what I believed in. So it’s pretty wicked that she’s turned into my partner. It’s really nice.’’
And what Trend concedes was a big risk, walking away from her AFLW opportunity with Fremantle, is one she hopes has paid off.
“I just really wanted to do it for the opportunities that could arise, and I also ensured that I was my true self on national TV. Throughout my whole life, a lot of people have judged me before getting to know me, so it’s nice that they’re going to be able to see, I guess, ‘the real Jess Trend’, and actually understand who I am as a person.’’
That includes subsequent new skills as a juggler - a list that lengthened when Hawthorn’s new VFLW captain suffered an ACL tear to her left knee in February’s opening round. She is now in rehab following a second reconstruction, this one to her left knee.
“It’s exhausting and it’s tiring,’’ Trend admits of her busy existence. “But it’s understanding your priorities and making sure that you leave some time for yourself and the people that matter most, and also having the balance in sport and life, as well.
Written by Linda Pearce
