"I'm lucky. I don't need to say anything because mum does more of that than I do. And I'm not sure she's been all that subtle about it," he said, smiling. "She's pretty keen for me to play for Carlton and it would be huge for my whole family, I think. Dad keeps quiet about it - he's in the business so he knows how it works - but mum's a bit further back and when clubs come around to visit I think she starts to wonder whether everything will work out. It's just the process, and I know that. But I can tell how much it would mean to my family. I think they want me there as much as I want myself there."

It is what Jack has always wanted, and what he has always felt destined to do. He has never fallen for the thought that he would get a chance simply because of his surname - plenty of father-son candidates haven't been drafted, let alone worked out - but has always felt determined to make sure that he got to try.

His has not been a traditional path, so far. When he was 14, Jack was invited to take part in the Oakleigh Chargers' junior programs and wanted to. But he was smaller than the other kids, and his dad wasn't convinced he was ready for it. "I pushed back. I definitely wanted to play, but sometimes when you think you know best, you actually don't," said Jack, who made his own decision not to play as a bottom-ager for the Chargers last year. "I was coming off stress fractures in my back and I didn't feel like the time was right for me," he said. "I made my mind up to stay out of it that year, to do a full preseason, play a year of school footy and be in a better position to make the team this year."

He did, and has learnt so many things since. In his first few weeks with Oakleigh, Jack felt his head fill up with game plans, structures and other information that he loved trying to process, plan around and put into play. He had to get to know a whole new group of teammates, quickly, then do it all again when he made the Vic Metro side and found out even more about what he was good at, what needed work and how he could negotiate both things to play as well as possible. Some opponents were too quick for him. Others, he could out-think.

Silvagni's season ended soon after the championships, when he injured his shoulder and had to have it reconstructed. It was over long before he was ready for it to be. But he had found out that he could read the play, that he knew where he needed to be. He'd realised he needed to get quicker, to improve his endurance. Every game threw new things at him, but he looked forward to working his way through all of them.