Jeremy Finlayson (born 9 February 1996) is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), having been initially drafted to . He is now playing for Port Adelaide, and living his best life with his daughter Sophia, and wife Kellie.

Personal life

Finlayson was born in

Culcairn Culcairn () is a town in the south-east Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Culcairn is located in the Greater Hume Shire local government area on the Olympic Highway between Albury and Wagga Wagga. The town is south-west of the sta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, 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 ...

(

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

) descent. He grew up playing an array of sports including

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

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 mostly focused on Australian rules football. Finlayson attended Billabong High School in Culcairn and played his junior football with the Culcairn Lions in the

Hume Football League The Hume Australian Football Netball League (HFNL), often shortened to Hume Football League, is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing twelve clubs based in the South West Slopes and southern Riverina regions of New Sout ...

, making his senior debut for the club in 2012 at the age of 16. In late 2012 he moved to Sydney to join the

GWS Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...

' academy program full time in order to increase his chances of being drafted into the

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 ...

. The decision paid off at the

2014 AFL draft The 2014 AFL draft consists of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) can trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2014 AFL season. Additions to each club's playing list are not allowed ...

when the Giants drafted Finlayson with their 85th pick in the national draft. He completed his high school education at

Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown is a Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for boys, located in Blacktown, a western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History The College was founded in 1952 by the Patrician Bro ...

. In March 2023, Finlayson tied the knot. His wife Kellie revealed that she was re-diagnosed with cancer a few weeks before they got married. In April 2023, Jeremy made an emotional tribute to his wife.

AFL career

Finlayson made his debut against at

Spotless Stadium Sydney Showground Stadium (Known commercially as GIANTS Stadium during the AFL Season) is a sports and events stadium located at the Sydney Showground in Sydney Olympic Park. It hosted the baseball events for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Show ...

in round fifteen of the 2017 season. Finlayson was traded to for family reasons at the conclusion of the 2021 AFL season.

References

External links

* * 1996 births Living people People from Culcairn Greater Western Sydney Giants players East Coast Eagles players Port Adelaide Football Club players Australian rules footballers from New South Wales Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub