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. 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. 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.
Early life and junior football Higgins spent his formative years in Caulfield, a suburb 10 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. 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. 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.
AFL recruitment 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. 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.
Junior statistics
TAC Cup
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2016 |Oakleigh Chargers | 35 || 7 || 14 || — || 83 || 69 || 152 || 35 || 21 || 2.0 || — || 11.9 || 9.9 || 21.7 || 5.0 || 3.0 |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2017 |Oakleigh Chargers | 35 || 14 || 31 || — || 199 || 123 || 322 || 75 || 71 || 2.2 || — || 14.2 || 8.8 || 23.0 || 5.4 || 5.1 |- |- class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3| Career ! 21 ! 45 ! — ! 282 ! 192 ! 474 ! 110 ! 92 ! 2.1 ! — ! 13.4 ! 9.1 ! 22.6 ! 5.2 ! 4.4 |} Under 18 National Championships
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2016 |Vic Metro | 2 || 2 || 1 || — || 25 || 16 || 41 || 8 || 1 || 0.5 || — || 12.5 || 8.0 || 20.5 || 4.0 || 0.5 |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2017 |Vic Metro | 2 || 4 || 6 || — || 53 || 56 || 109 || 24 || 25 || 1.5 || — || 13.3 || 14.0 || 27.3 || 6.0 || 6.3 |- |- class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3| Career ! 6 ! 7 ! — ! 78 ! 72 ! 150 ! 32 ! 26 ! 1.2 ! — ! 13.0 ! 12.0 ! 25.0 ! 5.3 ! 4.3
AFL career Richmond (2018–2020)
2018 season Higgins was drafted by with the club's first pick and the 17th selection overall, the last pick of the 1st round in the 2017 AFL national draft.
He demonstrated impressive running ability while training as a midfielder in his first AFL pre-season, before playing his first football in Richmond colours at the AFLX exhibition tournament in Sydney in February 2018. He also played limited minutes in the club's first official pre-season match, recording five disposals against in Wangaratta. He could not hold his spot into the final match of that series however, instead playing a practice match with the club's reserves side in the VFL. There he stayed through the first week of the AFL season, kicking two goals in a VFL practice match win over the Northern Blues. Higgins flew as a travelling emergency with the club's senior side to Adelaide the following week before playing another VFL practice match the next day, this time racking up 22 disposals, six marks, five tackles and a goal. Following that match, Higgins was selected to make his AFL debut against at the MCG in round 3. He kicked two goals in his debut, the first of which came from his first kick in league football and the second which earned him a nomination for the Goal of the Week. Despite this strong performance, Higgins was omitted from the round 4 side chosen to face the the following week, owing to the injury return of premiership players Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy. He sat out just one match, returning to AFL football with a team-high three goals in round 5's ANZAC Day eve match against . He thus became the first Richmond player to kick multiple goals in the first two matches of their career since Justin Plapp did so in 1998. Higgins added another two goals in round 6, and played senior matches in each of the next two weeks before being a late withdrawal from the selected side in round 9. He played . Higgins spent just one week on the sidelines before returning in round 10, this time becoming the subject of major news story when he was disallowed a goal on a score-review that the AFL later admitted was incorrect. Head coach Damien Hardwick flagged an intent to give Higgins more midfield time after his round 15 performance in which he gathered 20 disposals in his side's victory over . He also earned praise from Richmond vice-captain Jack Riewoldt who praised Higgins' work off-ball, an area he said was often a weakness in first-year players. To that point he ranked second for total goal assists, third for score involvements per game, fourth for contested possessions per game and fifth for total tackles inside 50 among all Rising Star eligible players in the league that season. In round 16 he recorded a season-best 25 disposals in his side's victory over and two weeks later he received a Rising Star nomination for an 18 disposal, four clearance and one goal contribution to his side's round 18 win over . Higgins received another award nomination the following week, this time for Goal of the Year for a goal-line scissor kick against which 3AW commentator Tim Lane referred to as “one of the greatest, most creative goals ever kicked in 120 years of (the sport).” The goal attracted significant controversy however, with some commentators and fans labeling it a throw as it required Higgins to elevate the ball into the air while his body travelled around the goal-line in the act of kicking. Umpiring officials later supported the on-field umpire's decision to award the goal as Higgins' action to put the ball into the air was deemed to come in the action of kicking. Higgins continued to earn selection at senior level into the finals series, where he recorded 20 disposals, eight score involvements and one goal in his side's qualifying final win over . He was named by AFL Media as one of Richmond's best players in the following match, a shock preliminary final loss to in which he kicked two of his side's eight goals. At season's end Higgins was nominated for the AFL Players Association's Best First-Year Player, placed fourth in the AFL Rising Star and won Richmond's best first year player award. He also received the Goal of the Year award for his round 19 scissor-kick goal. Higgins finished 2018 having played 20 matches and ranked first for contested possessions, goal assists and score involvements per game across Rising Star eligible players that year.
2019 season