FEW under 18 players have a football resume quite like Jack Higgins. The Oakleigh Chargers’ midfielder/forward added a Morrish Medal to his already bulky CV to go with two Vic Metro best and fairests (at under 16s and under 18s level), an All-Australian nod, a Kevin Sheahan Medallist as the best under 16s player at the national carnival two years ago, and a TAC Cup Team of the Year place.

Higgins is not getting ahead of himself however, stating his dedication to a career as a key motivation in his football career. “That’s one of my strengths,” he said. “How much I want to make it in the AFL and be a really good player and just keep on working hard until I make the grade. “I thought I went pretty well, starting off slow but sorta got going as the season went on playing more forward. “(I’m) feeling pretty happy, a lot of work has gone in to playing some good footy, so yeah more than happy.”

It was fitting that Higgins was awarded the TAC Cup’s highest accolade by close friend and Collingwood midfielder/forward Tom Phillips. Higgins said Phillips’ father had been the biggest influence on his own personal career.

“Probably Anthony Phillips (biggest influence),” he said. “Tom and Ed’s Dad who have helped me through the season and going through vision and that sort of stuff and doing individual skills.”

Higgins’ dream of becoming an AFL player did not always have the smoothest of sailings, initially missing out on the Victorian state team.

“I was in the Under 12 squad of 50, but… I didn’t make it,” Higgins said. “I was really annoyed at the time, I thought my AFL career was over … as you do when your 12 years old. “As soon as I came home, I went straight to the park, did some 200s, got out the front with Dad to do some footy skills. “Ever since I got cut, I wanted to make AFL even more.”

Higgins has used the initial disappointment as determination to prove those coaches and selectors wrong. “I’ve just worked on my weaknesses,” he said. “Like my weaknesses back then was my pace and I wasn’t that fast and my skills weren’t that good. “I just worked extra hard in the park and with my dad and all my mentors and a running coach and all that sort of stuff to just make AFL.”

Fast forward to 2017 and Higgins started his season in the midfield and gradually pushed forward, with the exciting small admitting he loved “kicking snags”. He kicked a number of big goal hauls in the second half of the season including seven majors against Bendigo, but had to thank his teammates for “a few cheapies”.

“Probably last week against Bendigo, kicking a lazy seven (was my best game),” Higgins said. “I felt pretty good, I kicked three in the first quarter and you know your in for a big day. “But I came off in the third quarter with a sore shoulder but thought I was going to go for double figures.”

Higgins said the experience of playign for Vic Metro alongside so many talented players was a fantastic experience. ”

“(It) definitely helped and I got some good confidence after I thought I played pretty well there, and I was really confident playing in the TAC Cup,” he said. “It’s really good playing on the big stage with (Nick) Coffield, (Cam) Rayner and guys like that are giving you the ball and plenty of other Vic Metro players.”

Higgins said his goals this season were team orientated, but he was “more than happy” to take the individual accolades with the team success. “Hopefully we (Oakleigh) can go the whole way, we’ve been pretty consistent all year, we’ve had a lot of core boys play basically all year so hopefully that can translate to finals football and we can come up with the chocolates,” he said. “(I’ll) probably forward, maybe midfield if I need  – I’m happy to go anywhere as long as the team needs me.”

His versatility is one area he believes will help him transition into the AFL, drawing comparisons with Toby Greene and Sam Mitchell, because they are “not the fastest people going around, but just want to play footy”. His self-described strengths include marking, ball getting, goal sense and goal kicking. “Hopefully if I start my AFL career forward, then later in my career move up into the midfield,” Higgins said. “I’m more than happy to play wherever the coach wants me to.”

Unlike many other 18 year-olds, Higgins is already getting his foot in the door in the fitness industry with a number of jobs throughout his top-age year. “I was doing AFL umpires for about 2 months,” he said. “Then I went to another job doing a bit of work at a few gyms during the week and done a PT course.”(I) was just helping the umpires out at AFL House.” packing whistles, learning heaps of stuff in the office.

Now with TAC Cup finals ** and the National Draft Combine standing between Higgins and his draft dream, the dedicated teenager has already had thoughts about what it would be like to land at an AFL club. “If I just played one game of AFL my life would be complete but hopefully it’s more than one,” he said. “It would mean everything, I’ve wanted to do it basically since I was ever born, to play one AFL game or just to get on that list it would be a dream come true.”

Higgins has found the positive of talking to AFL clubs and speaking about his footballing future. “I don’t find it daunting,” he said. “I love doing it cause it’s all one step closer to it coming around.” That step closer will decrease bit by bit over the next couple of months and one thing is for sure, if Higgins’ acceptance speech on Morrish Medal night is anything to go by, the AFL is likely to have found another character.

** – Since the article was published, Higgins has been ruled out of Oakleigh’s Elimination Final against the Northern Knights with a shoulder injury