How a bunch of cassette tapes still inspire Hawthorn Hawks' Jarman Impey everyday

THE MEMORIES aren't as vivid as they once were, but the cassette recordings still are. Whenever Jarman Impey needs to hear his dad's voice, the Hawthorn star plays one of the many tapes his old man left him before he lost his battle to testicular cancer almost a decade ago.

Every October, Impey heads away with a group of his dad's mates to Echuca or Broadbeach. This year they will travel up to the Gold Coast to mark the 10th anniversary since Glenn Impey passed away.

By the time he lands in Queensland, Impey might have a premiership medal to add to the All-Australian blazer he collected in August. But success on-field is – and always has been – bittersweet for Impey when he reflects on who isn't here to see him achieve it.

Glenn raised Jarman and his younger sister Paigan on his own in Shepparton after he split up with their mother. Jarman was only a toddler at the time. Together they chased a better life. The AFL was always the dream, like it is for hundreds of thousands of kids, but one only a tiny number realise.

When Jarman was only 15 and starting to emerge on the radar of recruiters and agents, Glenn was diagnosed with testicular cancer at just 35. He fought it at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and almost reached the coveted, hard-to-reach, five-year anniversary of his last chemotherapy treatment. But then, viciously, it returned.

By then, Jarman was three years into his career at Port Adelaide and making a name for himself across the border. Ken Hinkley rode him hard, but made sure Glenn knew they were taking good care of his boy. The Power also ensured the Impeys were taken care of.

Glenn fought cancer for two more years before passing in 2016. By the end of the following season, Jarman felt a duty to be closer to his sister in Victoria – and his nanna, who moved in when her son became sick – and requested a trade to Hawthorn at the end of 2017.

Now nine seasons into his career in brown and gold, Impey is at the peak of his powers. He is 31 and married to Annabelle. Last year, they welcomed son Zion into the world. Not a day passes without Impey thinking about his dad, contemplating what it would be like to have him here around his family, around his club, especially in moments like this weekend, where a preliminary final win will secure a spot in a Grand Final.

"You reflect a lot and you reflect on how he might have felt. Tey say you can't love anything more than your own children, so to be able to feel that love with Zion, I certainly have a greater understanding, and I certainly knew how much my father loved me," Impey tells AFL.com.au.

"A lot of reflection, a lot of emotions that come with that; happy, sad, confused and frustrated at times that he's not here to see Zion grow or hang out with him or teach him certain things. But overall, I'm very, very, very happy with life."

The shared dream of making it out of country Victoria to play in the big time was nurtured on Saturday afternoons watching local footy in Shepparton. People would hear them before they saw the Chev truck purr into the carpark. Impey remembers how much his dad, the fitness fanatic, drove him to get the most out of his athletic gifts and become someone.

"He was my big inspiration," Impey says. "We're just like-minded people I feel. The longer that I've been able to grow and mature, the more I miss him in a sense because we just got each other so well, and it just would have been cool to have him around and experience my life and the people in my life at this present time.

"It was a common goal to make a difference, to break the mould if you like, to make something of ourselves. That was our escape - football - and the goal was to get drafted and the goal was to clearly have a good career. So looking back on it now at 31 years of age, being able to meet the people that I have and have the teammates that I've had and have all the people in my life, he has certainly been a massive inspiration. And to this day, I think about him every day."

Glenn thought ahead when he was on his sick bed. He knew, devastatingly, that he wasn't going to be around to celebrate special occasions: weddings, childbirths or milestone games. He also knew he wasn't going to be able to provide a shoulder to cry on in the times when a father is really required. That's why he left meaningful possessions behind for Jarman and Paigan.

"He's left us a beautiful Monaro and a bike and plenty of memories and photos and recordings, so that's how I stay connected with my dad. I feel so lucky and that just goes back to a bit of my mindset where I just like to think in a positive manner. There's still high emotions with frustrations and all these other things that you're naturally going to get when you miss him and want to share moments with him. But I feel very, very lucky to have all these moments and connections with him," he says.

"My sister has a similar mindset as well. Dad left her a car as well, so I just can't help but think he's so smart with leaving us these things and leaving tape recordings and I feel actually really lucky.

"I haven't said this to too many people, but I feel really lucky that him having cancer gave him us the chance to say goodbye and for him to prepare … because a lot of people never get to meet their fathers or they don't have the greatest fathers or they leave in an instant. He prepared a forever lasting memory that we can always go back and reflect on."

The tapes mean more than anything else. There are videos of Jarman running around as a kid. Loud. Cheeky. Energetic. But the cassettes are there to be listened to whenever he needs advice.

"He left a lot of them. He knew that he was going to pass, so they were just pretty much explaining how much he loved us, if anything got hard in life to continue to push through. You're dealt cards in life and we were dealt with these particular cards, so just play with what you've been dealt. But always pushing forward, always having a positive mindset," he explains.

"Being able to tell us how much he loved us, what he loved in our lives, the people to talk to whenever times got tough. Like his friends ... he had a close group of mates and he certainly put that in the recordings, who to talk to, who to connect to. And to enjoy the bikes and the cars that he's left us. They are pretty special."

Cars were central to life in Shepparton. And they remain central to Impey's life now. He inherited a HQ Monaro. He is working on a Holden LC GTR Torana right now (you can even follow its progress on the Jarmans_motorsports Instagram page).

"It all stems from dad," he says.

"We grew up in a country town and there's a big car show there called the Spring Nats, which naturally everyone goes to every year. I think that was the love for the car scene because it's a big car scene in Shepparton. Being outdoors we spend a lot of time on the river, fishing and skiing, dirt bikes, motorbikes, they were the things we loved to do together."

Impey's father-in-law passed away ahead of his 200th game in March last year. Unlike with his own father, it was sudden and the news rocked him and his wife, who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time. He looked up to him like a father and feels blessed to have had him in his life.

"It was unexpected. We get a phone call and it's just like, 'What do you mean?' And then I remember it clearly just leaving training and then your life has just changed and there's so many people out there in the world that will be able to connect with that also," he says.

"It's really sad because I had a great relationship with my father-in-law. Oh my God, he was awesome. He and my dad would have been the best of buddies. He was a mechanic by trade, so there's something in that. We'd just finished a Camaro; it was 99 per cent done, and we got it on the road for him. So we're lucky in the sense that Annabelle can take Zion for a spin.

"He was a hard worker, very supportive of us and I can't speak highly enough of him because he was always there to help. So for him to leave us was devastating for the whole family. He had just moved to Melbourne, so it was nice to have him around. Belle was 36 weeks pregnant as well. So it was just devastating really. And then just trying to get through that year. So there's a lot that's happened in the past 18 months. But there is no doubt in my mind, he's up there guiding us."

Starting a family has helped them deal with the grief. It has also helped Impey produce the best football of his career this year. The little things don't consume him like they did previously. He doesn't have time to worry about them anyway. Get in, get it done, get on with it.

"Life has changed a lot in in the past 18 months, certainly for the better," he says. "Clearly it's had its challenges as you would know, but having Zion brought into the world has been really special. I like to look at things in a positive manner and take in perspective in life. So having Zion has certainly helped all that. Being able to switch off from training, from work and come home to the family has been really, really cool. It has been challenging, especially with sleep and looking after another human, but it's been really special."

Impey mentions the word 'work' and he isn't referring to football as his day job. Work is the traffic management business he started called 'Woka', which translates to 'land' in Yorta Yorta language and is a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned and operated business. AFL has afforded him a life he didn’t have growing up, but it won't last forever.

"It's going very well, so it's pretty cool," he says. "At this stage of my life, it's been really fun not to think about football so much and have something like that. It's pretty ironic that dad was a builder and I used to be on job sites growing up trying to earn some pocket money and to start this business is cool. I've got a business partner in Matthew and we're going really well and we're trying to win some more work, but it's all looking really positive."

After years of sustained excellence in the brown and gold, Impey was finally recognised with a maiden All Australian blazer, much to the delight of his coach Sam Mitchell and many at Hawthorn, who have long maintained that their gun half-back plays both ways in an era where selectors are drawn to offensive impact, where statistics don't fully appreciate art and dependability.

To make the personal achievement more significant, Impey was one of five First Nations players in the 23, setting a record alongside Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Wayne Milera, Shai Bolton and Kysaiah Pickett.

"I was very happy to make the team and be among some amazing players, There's amazing players that didn't get the jacket, so I'm very grateful for that, especially at the age of 31," he says.

"First and foremost, I just want gratitude from my own teammates and play a predictable brand of football where I want to be one of the first picked in my team be consistent. I don't like the individual accolades as such, I just like to be a good teammate and want to be someone that people want to play with."

A much bigger prize remains up for grabs across the penultimate fortnight of the season. But no matter what happens from here – this year and beyond – Impey is regarded as an energy-giver by everyone in his orbit. He is much more than just the man in the No.4.

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