Jackson Nelson (born 15 March 1996) is an

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who currently plays for

Old Geelong The Old Geelong Sporting Club (known as the 'OGs') is an amateur men's and women's sports club based at Como Park, South Yarra, Victoria. The teams compete in the "Premier A & B" Divisions of the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). The ...

in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded in 1892, it consists of six senior divisions, ranging from Premier to Division 3 i ...

(VAFA). He previously played for the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) from 2015 until 2022, and then served as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of West Coast's reserves team in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL) from 2023 until the end of the 2024 season.

Career

Junior career

Nelson played junior football for St Mary's. He later represented the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the Talent League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition in Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warr ...

in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

, where he played 12 matches while averaging 20 disposals. In 2014, he played for Vic Country at the AFL Under 18 Championships, averaging four tackles and 12 disposals in six matches. Nelson was drafted by West Coast with pick 51 in the 2014 national draft.

AFL career

Nelson made his AFL debut in the opening round of the

2015 AFL season The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

after impressing coach

Adam Simpson Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

during the NAB Challenge. He played 11 games for West Coast in 2015 and nine with

(WAFL) affiliate

East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

. Nelson played the first four rounds of the

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

before being dropped to the WAFL. He responded with a strong performance against

Swan Districts The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb ...

, playing a

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

role rather than

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

. He amassed 29 touches, six tackles, seven marks and six inside-50s. Nelson finished the year with eight matches in the AFL and the WAFL. He strung five matches together at the start of the

2017 AFL season The 2017 AFL season was the 121st 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 ...

, before breaking his wrist in the second quarter of a loss to Hawthorn. Despite the injury, Nelson recorded five tackles and 17 possessions after carrying on the match. He missed three weeks of football, although he continued running in training, and returned with a 15-disposal, one-goal effort for East Perth. In July, Nelson extended his contract by two years (until 2019). He played 13 AFL matches and two WAFL matches for the year, polling one vote in East Perth's best and fairest. In 2018, Nelson played 10 AFL matches but missed the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

. He played nine games in the WAFL, including a match against

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in which he was reported for striking Cody Ninyette. Nelson received a one-match suspension. At the end of the 2022 season, Nelson was delisted by the Eagles.

Post-AFL career

Despite his AFL delisting, Nelson remained at West Coast and signed with the club's

reserves team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the WAFL for the 2023 season, becoming the team's captain. At the end of the

2024 WAFL season The 2024 WAFL season was the 140th season of the various incarnations of the West Australian Football League (WAFL). The season commenced on the 28th of March 2024. Peel Thunder won their third premiership, beating the minor premiers East Perth i ...

, he left the Eagles and returned to Victoria, where he signed with

in the

(VAFA).

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Jackson 1996 births Living people West Coast Eagles players Geelong Falcons players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) East Perth Football Club players West Coast Eagles (WAFL) players