The AFL’s lightweight is a contender for a premiership season debut.
Jockey-sized Jake Neade, weighing just 67 kilograms, has bolted into the selection frame at Port Adelaide.
The 18-year-old is the only player on an AFL list weighing less than 70kg, but impressed for the Power in their pre-season cup openers on Sunday.
The lively forward, who hails from Elliot in the Northern Territory, located midway between Alice Springs and Darwin, is also only 170cm tall.
But Port coach Ken Hinkley says size doesn’t matter.
“Size is not one thing that will stop you if you have got effort and energy,” Hinkley said.
“Jake showed he has got some real positives.”
Neade was a standout for the NT in last year’s under-18 national championships, winning All Australian selection.
Port swooped on the indigenous talent likened to Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli, who was among Greater Western Sydney’s pre-listed 17-year-olds.
The Power traded draft selection 28 to the Giants to secure Neade.
“We were pretty bullish on him,” Hinkley said.
“We knew what he was going to offer and it was an area of our side that he was going to strengthen – that small forward who can really put some pressure on and harass and then turn nothing into something.”