Jai Newcombe (born 2 August 2001) 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 with the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

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).

Early career

Growing up in the small rural town of Poowong in Southern

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

. Newcombe participated in the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian rules football (AFL) to boys and girls aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective pro ...

program at Poowong and playing junior football for the Poowong Magpies in the Ellinbank & District Football League. Newcombe was unable to secure a place in the Gippsland Power squads at ages 16, 17 and 18. Newcombe made the team in 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic he was unable to play a game. Newcombe's AFL career started with playing for Hawthorn affiliate

Box Hill Hawks Box Hill Hawks Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the Victorian Football League. It has an alliance with the Hawthorn Football Club, which plays in the Australian Football League. Early Australian rules football in B ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). He played a practice match for Box Hill at the start of 2020 and was asked to come back in November after Melbourne was released from lockdown. He made the long commute twice a week from Warragul (where he was working) to training at Box Hill.

AFL career

Newcombe was selected with Pick 2 in the 2021 mid-season draft, having caught the eye of recruiters after building an impressive campaign with the

across the first half of the

2021 VFL season The 2021 Victorian Football League season was the 139th season of the Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition. The season commenced on 16 April was curtailed without a premiership awarded o ...

. The following week, Newcombe made his AFL debut against the Swans, setting an AFL record for the most tackles in a debut match, with 14.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of 2023.'' , - ,

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2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

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Honours and achievements

Individual * AFLCA best young player: 2022 * Lethal Award: 2022 * 2×

Peter Crimmins Medal The Peter Crimmins Medal is an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) from the Hawthorn Football Club deemed best and fairest for the season. Peter Crimmins was a rover for Hawthorn, playing from 1966 to 1975 It was also de ...

runner-up: 2022, 2023 *

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 ...

nominee:

* 22under22 team: 2023 (vc) * VFL Team of the Year: 2021

References

External links

* * * Living people 2001 births Hawthorn Football Club players Box Hill Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Gippsland Power players {{AFL-bio-2000s-stub