Izak Rankine (born 23 April 2000) is a professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who plays for the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL), having previously been drafted to the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

with pick 3 in the

2018 AFL draft The 2018 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) traded and recruited players following the completion of the 2018 AFL season. For the first time, the AFL draft featured live trading ...

Early life

Rankine was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

into a family of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

descent (

Kokatha The Kokatha, also known as the Kokatha Mula, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia. They speak the Kokatha language, close to or a dialect of the Western Desert language. Country Traditional Kokatha lands extend ov ...

and

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

). He shares a relation to

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

inductee and 1993 Brownlow Medalist

Gavin Wanganeen Gavin Adrian Wanganeen (born 18 June 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and also for the Port Adelaide Magpies in ...

as well as being the first cousin of former

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

player

Danyle Pearce Danyle Pearce (born 7 April 1986) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Port Adelaide betwe ...

. As a child, Rankine played an array of sports which included

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

but eventually chose to focus on

. He grew up playing junior football for Edwardstown and Flinders Park before being given the opportunity to rise through the junior ranks at

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

club West Adelaide. In 2016, he played his first senior SANFL game for West Adelaide at the age of 16 and kicked two goals on debut. He was later selected to represent South Australia in the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

2018 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2018 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships was the 23rd edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships. The tournament was played in two divisions, with the best players from across the entire Division 2 Academy series, combined into an Allies team wh ...

where he was named in the All-Australian team both years and played a crucial role in South Australia's 2018 national championship. Rankine attended Henley High School throughout his teenage years, where he played school football alongside future Gold Coast teammate Jack Lukosius and the pair were very influential in winning the 2018 SA Schools Championship.

AFL career

Rankine was drafted by the Gold Coast Suns with the third pick in the

. Persistent hamstring and hip injuries prevented him from making his AFL debut in 2019 but the Suns showed faith in Rankine by agreeing to a two-year contract extension which tied him to the club until the end of 2022. Rankine made his AFL debut against the

Melbourne Demons The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

in round 6 of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season feature ...

and impressed with a three-goal performance, which earned him the round 6

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Buc ...

nomination. At the conclusion of the

2022 AFL season The 2022 AFL season is the 126th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season features ...

Rankine requested a trade to , and was traded on 10 October.

Personal life

In his spare time, Rankine enjoys making music. His cousin is in a relationship with Gold Coast teammate

Sean Lemmens Sean Lemmens (born 2 November 1994) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League. He is of Indigenous Australian heritage. Early career Lemmens was born into a family of Indigenous ...

and the couple's daughter is Rankine's second niece.

Statistics

: Statistics are correct to the end of round 3, 2022 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

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, , 22 , , 12 , , 12 , , 17 , , 90 , , 48 , , 138 , , 26 , , 21 , , 1.0 , , 1.4 , , 7.5 , , 4.0 , , 11.5 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, , 22 , , 18 , , 16 , , 11 , , 120 , , 92 , , 212 , , 51 , , 46 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 6.7 , , 5.1 , , 11.8 , , 2.8 , , 2.6 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, , 22 , , 1 , , 4 , , 1 , , 18 , , 5 , , 23 , , 6 , , 1 , , 4.0 , , 1.0 , , 18.0 , , 5.0 , , 23.0 , , 6.0 , , 1.0 , , TBA , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 31 ! 32 ! 29 ! 228 ! 145 ! 373 ! 83 ! 68 ! 1.0 ! 0.9 ! 7.4 ! 4.7 ! 12.0 ! 2.7 ! 2.2 ! 1

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rankine, Izak 2000 births Living people Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Australian rules footballers from South Australia Gold Coast Football Club players Ngarrindjeri