Adelaide Crows zero in on son of a gun Jackson Edwards
ADELAIDE is zeroing in on “ready-made’’ father-son prospect Jackson Edwards.
ADELAIDE is zeroing in on “ready-made’’ father-son prospect Jackson Edwards.
As SANFL high performance manager Brenton Phillips declared Edwards would be professionally ready to play AFL next season, the Crows are poised to talk to him and his family about his desire to play at West Lakes in 2018.
National recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie and list manager Justin Reid will meet with 18-year-old Jackson, his dad, dual premiership Crow Tyson, and mum Mandy this week with the intention of nominating him as Adelaide's second father-son pick.
Jackson’s cousin Ben Jarman — son of dual flag hero Darren — last year was the club’s first father-son selection, having been taken as a rookie.
While premier Richmond looks set to pay a high price for its potential father-son pick, first-round hope Patrick Naish, the Crows are hoping to get smart midfielder Jackson in the back half of the draft.
After trading away prime draft picks to bring Bryce Gibbs home from Carlton, Adelaide has picks 12, 39, 77 and 109 at the November 24 player lottery.
Under the reformed father-son bidding system, each draft selection is allocated a points value on a sliding scale.
Clubs nominating a player as a father-son draftee will be forced to use their existing draft selections to match the points value of the pick used by the club bidding for the player, although a discount does apply.
Edwards, a nice size for a midfielder at 186cm, is widely considered to be in the 40-to-70 range.
The only knock on the left-footer is his pace.
But Phillips says State under-18 ace Edwards, who played four league games for Glenelg this year, has similar traits to Brisbane Lions Brownlow Medallist and triple premiership player Simon Black.
“I can see a lot of Simon Black in the way he plays,’’ Phillips said.
“His ballwinning ability — in traffic and on the outside — his awareness, composure and ability to find targets with his excellent left-foot kick, there’s definitely some similarities with Black there.’’
Phillips described Edwards as a “professional athlete’’ who is ready to step into an AFL system and make his presence felt.
“He already understands the professionalism required to play at the elite level,’’ he said.
“He’s almost a ready-made player who could quite easily go into the Crows environment, step straight into SANFL football next year and be ready for AFL football if called upon.
“He’s an elite inside midfielder who has really good vision and really good game sense awareness.’’
Edwards has grown up in the Crows environment, where his dad played 321 games from 1995-2010 — second-most at the club behind Andrew McLeod’s 340.
He trained with the club in the pre-season and played for its SANFL team in a scratch match against GWS’s seconds at Football Park during the finals, kicking a goal.
andrew.capel@news.com.au