Jack Higgins is ready for step up to AFL level after record-breaking junior career

JACK Higgins is a football fanatic and even has a surprising post-playing career in mind as he looms as a first-round bolter in next week’s AFL Draft.

SIMON Goodwin this year suggested Sherrin should create an aftershave, such is the Melbourne coach’s love for the smell of the leather.

And if Eau de Sherrin was made, first-round draft prospect Jack Higgins would be dripping in it.

Higgins, 18, is a football fanatic. He lives for everything from grand finals to ice baths and all that’s in between.

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In fact, he’s already got a post-playing career in mind before his AFL days even begin.

“I’d love to become an umpire,” Higgins said. “I reckon it’d be sick behind the whistle. I’d really enjoy it and it gives you another perspective on the game.

“When you’re playing you’re playing, but when you’re umpiring you can actually see the game open up and it’s unreal.”

Jack Higgins celebrates a goal for Vic Metro.

Higgins spent seven weeks at AFL House earlier this year learning the whistle-blowing craft with umpires development manager Adam Davis.

He had time. The Caulfield Grammar student finished Year 11 last year and then gave school the boot, instead working part-time at two gyms as a spotter for a personal trainer.

Clubs suspected Higgins left school to sharpen his footy focus. But he says that wasn’t the case.

“I couldn’t really sit straight and was bored and I was just there because I had to be,” he said.

“If I did VCE I’d probably get a bad score, so what’s the point in me going through?”

While Higgins’ school scores were low, his football numbers are off the charts. But if the Oakleigh Charger had the No.1 pick in next Friday night’s draft, he would go Cameron Rayner.

“He’s just a beast — he can turn a game on its head like that,” Higgins said.

But if Champion Data had the No.1 pick they would go Higgins. He has produced the most spectacular junior career ever recorded by the number cruncher.

Jack Higgins in action for Oakleigh Chargers.

Jack Higgins in action for Vic Metro.

Higgins averaged 145 SuperCoach points from 33 games, recording more than 100 in all but one.

That bettered new Port Adelaide midfielder Tom Rockliff, who averaged 144 SuperCoach points from 34 junior games.

This year Higgins averaged 151 for Vic Metro as his football CV became as decorated as a Christmas tree.

There were concerns Higgins was only a small forward. Then he went and collected 22 disposals in a half for Metro.

Higgins won the Morrish Medal as the TAC Cup’s best-and-fairest, was named All-Australian and won Vic Metro’s MVP.

In 2015 Higgins was the best player at the under-16 carnival, when his reputation of impacting games every week began.

The pocket rocket thinks he plays a little like GWS star Toby Greene. Others think there is a touch of Brisbane Lion Dayne Zorko about him.

And he might join Greene with the Giants believed to be considering Higgins at No.11.

GWS star Toby Greene.

Brisbane star Dayne Zorko.

“My strengths are my ball-winning ability, finding the goals and my footy smarts. They’re the main three,” Higgins said.

Against Bendigo this year, Higgins kicked seven goals by three quarter-time and then sat out the last term with a sore shoulder.

The only child grew up liking Sam Mitchell and attended his 300th match to study the Hawthorn champion’s running patterns.

Like Mitchell, Higgins is small in stature at only 178cm. And like Mitchell, Higgins is high on determination.

When Higgins learned he missed an under-12 squad, he went straight to a nearby park and started running 200m sprints with his passionate dad, Greg.

Higgins has been invited to Sydney for the draft and a wide smile still spreads across his discussing his imminent selection.

“Mate, if I could get picked up it would mean the world to me. I’ve worked that hard for that long and it might be about to finally happen,” he said.

Originally published as Jack Higgins is ready for step up to AFL level after record-breaking junior career