Jack Higgins

Jack Higgins (born 19 March 1999) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

He previously played 43 games over three seasons at Richmond.

AFL Draft Central projected Higgins to be taken with a late first round pick, while AFL Media's Callum Twomey projected Higgins to be taken with the 11th overall pick in his draft day phantom draft.

TAC Cup

Higgins was an impressive junior player and leader, captaining his side to a Division 1 premiership at under-13 level in 2012 in which he was named grand final best on ground.

Higgins showed intense dedication to the sport from a young age, learning to kick proficiently on both legs by age 10 and working with a specialist running coach from age 13.

His first representative football experience came when he joined the Oakleigh Chargers under-16s development program.

Soon after he was named the best player at the under-16 national championships while representing the Victorian Metropolitan region in 2015.

The following year he played his first top-level matches for Oakleigh's TAC Cup side, making 10 appearances and kicking 19 goals across the season and finals.

Despite being a year below draft eligibility, Higgins led the competition for average score involvements (8.9 per game) and averaged a stunning 26.7 disposals per game.

His average of 145 Champion Data ranking points per game also placed him fourth in the league, behind top-age players and that year's eventual top three AFL draft picks in Andrew McGrath, Tim Taranto and Hugh McCluggage.

He finished that break-out year by playing in an under-17s All-Star match as a curtain raiser to that year's AFL grand final.

Higgins had to that point attended high school at both De La Salle College and later Caufield Grammar School, but left at the end of year 11 in 2016.

Instead he focused on his football, committing to a rigorous weights program and extensive external sprints, skills and kicking coaching.

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As a junior Higgins was named All Australian at the 2017 AFL Under 18 Championships and won the Morrish Medal as the best player in the Victorian junior state league, the TAC Cup.

He was drafted by Richmond with the last pick of the first round in the 2017 AFL national draft and made his debut for the club in round 3 of the 2018 season.

In his debut season he earned the AFL Goal of the Year award and placed fourth in the league Rising Star award.

In addition to boosting his fitness, the program also improved his kicking efficiency in his TAC Cup season from 72 per cent the previous year to 78 per cent in 2017.

He also spent part of his draft year studying umpiring with AFL umpires development manager Adam Davis and worked part time at a local gym.

In the months leading into the 2017 junior season Higgins participated in the AFL's Academy program and traveled with the group on its high performance training camp trip to the United States of America.

He also participated in the program's showcase game at the MCG in April, in which he starred with two goals, six tackles and 19 disposals.

He was noted then as a potential number one overall draft pick and drew comparisons to forward and AFL All-Australian Toby Greene.

Higgins returned to TAC Cup football with the Oakleigh Chargers that year and held averages of 24 disposals, six marks and five tackles per game to go along with 27 goals in 13 matches.

His goal-kicking tally was seventh best in the competition.

Perhaps his standout game came in round 17 of the competition, when he kicked seven goals in his side's 88-point victory over the Bendigo Pioneers.

He continued to earn significant praise from AFL draft experts over this time, with ESPN's Christopher Doerre labelling him a likely top-10 pick Higgins ultimately won the Morrish Medal as the TAC Cup's best and fairest player on the back of his spectacular 2017 season, polling 22 votes across nine of his 13 games to become the first player in Oakleigh history to win the award.

Despite taking out the league award he missed out on the Oakleigh best and fairest, placing second behind forward Toby Wooler.

At the national championships he again represented the Vic Metro region, playing four matches and averaging 27.3 disposals, six tackles and six marks along with a tally of six goals in the title-winning side.

He was named the team's best and fairest player in addition to earning All-Australian selection at the tournament.

By the time he had finished his junior career, Higgins held the all-time record for average Champion Data ranking points per game (145 across 33 games in two years), beating Tom Rockliff's record set nine years earlier.

Higgins was invited to attend the national draft combine in Melbourne in October 2017.

He placed second in the class for the kicking test, missing just one of an available 30 points.

Prior to the draft, Higgins was lauded for his football IQ, goal sense, his ability to win the ball in the forward half and his scoring ability, both as a midfielder and a forward.

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Higgins missed a significant part of the 2019 season after undergoing surgery for a brain condition.

In the 2020/21 off-season, he was traded to St Kilda in a multipiece deal that principally involved a second round draft pick.

Higgins spent his formative years in Caulfield, a suburb 12 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.

Higgins grew up as a passionate St Kilda fan.

He first played competitive football with Ormond Football Club in the South Metro Junior Football League before later moving to play for East Malvern Junior Football Club in the same league.