Son of a gun Jackson Edwards emerges as a blue-chip recruiting prospect for the Adelaide Crows
SANFL high performance manager Brenton Phillips has compared Adelaide Crows father-son prospect Jackson Edwards to triple premiership-winning Lion Simon Black.
POTENTIAL Crows father-son pick Jackson Edwards has been compared to Brisbane Lions Brownlow Medallist and triple premiership player Simon Black.
In a glowing endorsement of the oldest son of 321-game Crows great Tyson Edwards, SANFL high performance manager Brenton Phillips says the 17-year-old midfielder has Black-type traits that should see him don the Adelaide tricolours next season.
“I can see a lot of Simon Black in the way he plays,’’ Phillips said after Edwards enjoyed a strong AFL Under-18 Championships campaign for SA, averaging a team-high 24 disposals.
“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.
“He must be on the Crows’ radar in terms of them taking him.’’
Edwards, who doesn't yet have Black’s class, is in line to become Adelaide’s second father-son selection after his cousin Ben Jarman — son of dual Crows premiership star Darren Jarman — was picked as a rookie last year.
Small forward/midfielder Ben, 19, has yet to play an AFL match.
The jury is out on just how high Edwards will be taken in the draft but if Adelaide, as expected, nominates him as a father-son pick, it can land him with its next selection after a rival club calls his name.
A nice size for a midfielder at 186cm and 77kg, he is not considered to be a first-round pick with most recruiting scouts rating him in the 40-to-60 bracket.
But Phillips is convinced Edwards has the tools to be a quality AFL player.
Black, who won the 2002 Brownlow and 2003 Norm Smith Medal, was picked at No. 31 at the 1997 national draft because of concerns over his pace.
But his other key attributes, including a lethal left-foot and elite running ability and inside work, allowed him play a club record 322 games from 1998-2013.
Phillips says Edwards, who plays at Glenelg, has a good mixture of “inside and outside play’’.
“He just finds the ball, his consistency with that is really good,’’ he said.
“The biggest query on him is speed but when you get so much of the ball you don’t have to be super quick.’’
Edwards, whose 15-year-old brother Luke is also on the Crows’ recruiting radar despite the fact that he cannot be drafted until 2020, raised his draft profile during the under-18 championships.
He had 23 disposals against Western Australia, 22 against the Allies, 21 against Vic Metro and 30 against Vic Country to emerge as a blue-chip prospect for Adelaide, which has been closely tracking his progress.
Edwards spent five weeks training with the Crows over summer as a father-son prospect and is a part of the club’s Next Generation Academy.
The sons of former Adelaide players, including Edwards, Andrew McLeod, inaugural captain Chris McDermott, Ben Hart and Nigel Smart, have spent time at the club this week and will be guests for tonight’s Adelaide Oval blockbuster against Geelong where they will be presented with Crows jumpers with their dad's number on the back.
Edwards said he has yet to be given any indication if Adelaide will draft him.
“I’ve spoken to them a couple of times, mostly with (national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie), but there’s been no commitment made,’’ said Edwards.
“They’ve just told me to continue to play good footy and then we’ll see what happens at the end of the season. So I try not to think about it too much and just concentrate on improving my game.
“To end up at the Crows would be great but to get an opportunity at any (AFL) club would be amazing because that’s something I’ve aimed at for a long time.’’
Edwards described dad Tyson — a dual Crows premiership player — as his hero and role model and says the advice that he and uncles, former stars Darren and Andrew Jarman, had passed on had been invaluable.
andrew.capel@news.com.au