AFL Player #29: Jake "Bull" Kelly 🐂

[Lore]

Contract Status: Out of contract 2024
My Boy Draft 2023: Claim here

 

[The Donners]

Darcy Moore to complete the Hattrick next year?

I for one say yes!

 

[JT_the_Man]

Welcome Jake.

I like the look of his highlights. Should complement our backline nicely.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Highlights -

 

[WeedsMullet84]

Welcome Jake.

I like the look of his highlights. Should complement our backline nicely.

Anyone know what sort of contract he's on?

 

[JT_the_Man]

Anyone know what sort of contract he's on?

3 years.

 

[84859300]

He looks like he's going to be a great Fwd, winger for us.

 

[Haychh]

Not a sexy pickup but I'm a massive fan of it. Look at the last few Premiership sides every team has one or two Jake Kellys. Petty this year, Broad, Sheppard/Duggan.

Will also stop us having to deploy our Rolls Royce (Rids) onto the punchable heads like Papley and Weightman.

 

[Lore]

The two games he missed last year were under concussion protocols as best I can tell, so he played every game available at Adelaide. Not sure if it's better to be concussed or omitted but there you go

 

[eth-dog]

Not a sexy pickup but I'm a massive fan of it. Look at the last few Premiership sides every team has one or two Jake Kellys. Petty this year, Broad, Sheppard/Duggan.

Will also stop us having to deploy our Rolls Royce (Rids) onto the punchable heads like Papley and Weightman.

Not sure Duggan fits the criteria here. He's more like Salem, albeit less effective

 

[Lore]

Meet Jake Kelly

Recruit Jake Kelly speaks from his home in Adelaide after signing with the Bombers as a restricted free agent.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Welcome interview

Apparently he did cross over with Truck for a year at Adelaide, Truck being a senior player in the same part of the ground at that point was actually kind of like a coach.

Played school footy at Scotch with James Stewart

17

James Stewart

Age

30

Ht

199cm

Wt

99kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.4

3star

K

6.8

3star

HB

4.7

3star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.9

4star

MG

193.5

3star

No current season stats available

D

12.4

4star

K

7.0

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

0.8

3star

MG

200.4

4star

who is a year older, I guess he and Stewart were also both Collingwood father/sons that Collingwood passed on at the time

The other connection is Snelling, Draper and Redman who "run a bit where he runs", I guess that's in SA when our guys are back home during the off-season.

Likes that the defence at Essendon works as a unit instead of as individuals, and he sees himself as locking down on the medium/small forwards and also providing some offensive run (an area he's been trying to improve on over the last 12 months).

 

[Lore]

And media conference:

Media conference | Jake Kelly

Recruit Jake Kelly speaks to the media via Zoom after he joins the Bombers as an unrestricted free agent.

www.essendonfc.com.au

7th in the BnF at Adelaide apparently. Most of the decisions were made after Essendon's finals were over, wanted to be respectful of Adelaide as well.

Mentioned that he didn't really keep touch with Truck in between his draft year and now, but exchanged a few messages over the years including one from Truck for his 100th game milestone (he's on 110 now so that would be earlier this year).

Moving back home to start with while he finds his own place, two brothers living there as well including Will (who plays for Collingwood).

Didn't know about Rance coming to Essendon until it was announced, but good to learn from him etc etc – they played against each other in the Grand Final a couple of years back

 

[Desync]

Another good looking Chook, We might just have the best looking team in the comp, That counts for something right?

 

[Mootsy]

Yesss!!

 

[Call Me Cake]

wtf I love him now

 

[TheBrightSide]

Another good looking Chook, We might just have the best looking team in the comp, That counts for something right?

It sure does.
We should only recruit based on handsomeness.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

It sure does.
We should only recruit based on handsomeness.

Come on down Campbell Chesser, Neil Erasmus and, to a lesser extent, Charlie Molan.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

Wow. What a get. Josh Kelly.

Our midfield us going to be nuts next year.

 

[Crom14]

Hooroo, much maligned and a whipping boy for many silly Crom supporters during his time in Adelaide but you wont get a bloke who works as hard as this man, for someone taken late in a rookie draft he's gotten every ounce out of his ability. He wont take screamers or anything flashy, but he'll play a role every week for your mob, all the best in 2022, go Crom, go Bom xo

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Typical Essendon. Holding up the FA/Trade period yet again

 

[Old Campaigner]

Come on down Campbell Chesser, Neil Erasmus and, to a lesser extent, Charlie Molan.

And no one related to Ben Brown

 

[ghostdog]

Welcome to Essendon, Jake Kelly

29

Jake Kelly

Age

29

Ht

190cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.5

4star

K

8.3

3star

HB

6.3

4star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.6

4star

MG

157.8

2star

D

8.1

2star

K

6.3

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

104.1

2star

D

14.8

4star

K

9.0

4star

HB

5.8

4star

M

6.0

5star

T

4.2

5star

MG

107.0

2star

!

It's about time the Hank Slattery role was reprised;
Dour lockdown small defender
Whipping boy

 

[Vander18]

The more I think about the recruitment of Kelly, the more I like it. The gap in the defence this season was the ability to lock down on dangerous smalls -second game v Swans with Papley running riot the prime example.

By all accounts Kelly is an elite 1:1 defender capable of playing on these types. If so then he comes in to the back seven at the expense of Cutler/Francis/Gleeson.

He won’t be there to rebound, intercept or run and carry…..he’s the anchor that frees up Redman, Ridley and Hind to do that for us. Heppell is the organiser and Reid or Stewart play on the big boys.

I love what Truck is building with our defence - think it will be a real strength in coming years.

 

[Cold Sober]

Looks a decent pick up.

 

[pazza]

It's about recruiting for identifiable need. Looking forward to see how he goes and how his role opens up options for the others around him.

 

[blitzer]

I like the pickup. Our defense although improving is still pretty thin. We only had 2 genuine guys who could play on the real dangerous smalls in Redman and Hind. Now fortunately they are both very good players but a few injuries there and you'd hate to think who'd be standing a dangerous small like a Cameron. Plus having a guy whose 80% defense 20% offense probably balances our more offensively orientated defense. Sometimes you just need need to shut a bloke down whose running hot.

Not to mention we could actually get more out of Redman and Hind offensively if they don't have to stand the most dangerous player which could lead to more game breaking running through the lines.

Another advantage is he's 26 with 110 games of experience. That's pretty nice because we have a lot of inexperienced guys in our side. You look at our backline - Redman 60 games, Hind 43, Ridley 48, Stewart 72, Laverde 69, Cutler 85 and Heppell 191. On top of that Stewart and Laverde have pretty much only had the single season in the backline after switching roles. Our backline will gain a lot as more of our guys get closer to 100 games of experience - especially an elite talent like Ridley, its incredible to think he hasn't even played 50 yet.