Travel is just a sacrifice for Eagles’ Jackson Lee
JACKSON Lee lives in a townhouse just outside Koolunga, in SA’s Mid-North, and spends four hours in a car to play football for Woodville-West Torrens.
JACKSON Lee lives in a townhouse just outside Koolunga, in SA’s Mid-North, and plays football for Woodville-West Torrens.
It means the midfielder/half-back flanker spends more than two hours in the car each way between trainings and home games – time he usually uses for schoolwork or sleeping while his father Wayne or mother Samantha drive.
Lee, 18, is not too fazed by the long trips, saying it is a sacrifice he has been prepared to make in trying to reach the AFL.
He hopes it all pays off at Friday night’s national draft, which he enters as one of the Eagles’ top prospects.
“I’m 40 minutes north of Clare ... so about a two-and-a-bit-hour drive to Adelaide,” Lee says.
“It’s not ideal but I’ve been doing it for over three years now ... and the last few years I’ve got used to it and involved schoolwork in the trips.
“You’ve got to do it if you want to get to your goal so it’s non-negotiable for us, really.
“(Making the AFL) has always been a dream since I was a little kid.
“It’d be full on but it’d mean everything.”
Koolunga and Clare are part of the Eagles’ country zone that has produced AFL players Riley Knight, Malcolm Karpany and Luke Dunstan in recent seasons.
Lee grew up playing for Brinkworth Spalding Red Hill Tigers in the North Eastern Football League, getting coached by Wayne as a junior then making his A-grade debut at 15.
Long journeys to rivals’ home grounds was common in that competition.
“I’ve always been driving around I guess,” says Lee, who has been playing for Woodville-West Torrens for three seasons.
“(Playing seniors at 15) really helped with the transition down at Eagles, where there’s pretty big bodies that crash in pretty hard.”
Lee represented SA at the midyear national under-18 titles.
To prepare for last month’s state draft screening, Lee trained for four weeks under ex-Adelaide Crow Bryan Beinke, working on agility, running technique and fitness.
“I really enjoyed that.”
Lee will watch the draft in Adelaide with his parents, whom he credits for his success to date along with Eagles under-18 coach Shane Reardon.
“It’s getting pretty nerve-racking, knowing there’s nothing I can really do about it.
“But I’ve been pretty calm through it all so I’ll let it play out and hopefully it goes my way.”