#32 Kieren Briggs (Pick 34, 2018 National Draft)

[Determinant]

PICK 34 KIEREN BRIGGS

PLAYER BIO
Former clubennant Hills/GWS Academy
Age:19
Height:200cm
Weight:103kg
Position:Ruckman
2018 U18 STATS
Games:4
Goals:3
Avg Kicks:8
Avg Marks:4.8
Avg Hballs:4.8
Ruckman/tall forward who imposes himself on the game with his physical presence in contests and strong hands.
Grew up playing soccer and has an athletics background.
A mobile tall who has played in the NEAFL for the last two seasons with the Giants’ reserves team.
Had an outstanding NAB AFL Under-18 Championships for the Allies, winning the MVP award, and was also named All Australian ruckman.

 

[Determinant]

Typically well written article by Emma
http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/20...itter&utm_medium=vanity&utm_campaign=EQBriggs
More in the link above..

Mummy's Tough Love Motivates Briggs

Emma Quayle

Jan 10, 2019 11:17AM

Kieren Briggs and Shane Mumford worked closely during 2018. It was a talk with Mumford that pushed Briggs to grasp his chance.

I can remember watching us and barracking for us and riding those waves of when we would win one or two games a year.​

GIANTS Draftee Kieren Briggs

Emma Quayle is an award-winning journalist and draft expert who spent 16 years covering AFL for The Age newspaper before joining the GIANTS’ recruiting team in February, 2017. As one of the industry’s most respected writers and talent spotters, Quayle has a unique perspective on the GIANTS’ recent crop of draftees and takes you inside the thinking of the recruiting team. In the first of her insightful six-part series, Quayle sits down with selection 34, Kieren Briggs.

Kieren Briggs was old enough to be drafted at the end of 2017, but he doesn’t blame the us for not picking him up then.

“I didn’t have a great year, that year,” he said. “To be honest, I could barely touch the footy. I wasn’t doing very much at all. But I guess it made me think. It made me wonder, ‘do I have the ability for this?”

He wanted to find out. But it took him a while to get going. Kieren was asked back as a 19-year-old last year, which meant he got to train through preseason with the GIANTS team.
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He thought he was a lot fitter. He thought he was looking after his sore hamstring well. And he was competing as hard as he could. He thought.

“I remember having this chat with Shane Mumford. It was around the end of the year,” he said.

“I was a bit down before Christmas. I wasn’t doing everything by the book. I missed a few exercises or sessions, and he just grabbed me in the kitchen one day and asked me what I was doing and gave me a flick behind the ear.

“He said to me, ‘look, you’ve been given this opportunity, so don’t leave any stone unturned because if you do then you’re wasting your time and everyone else’s time.’ I came back after that and was much better, and it just stuck with me for the whole year, him giving me that wake up call but also having belief in me.

“When I came back in I wasn’t really all that confident about where I could develop to or what I could achieve. It was mostly just, ‘ok, I’ve got another year.’ But he made me think, ‘I have got some talent, let’s actually use it and do some work.’ I did all my work over the break and when I came back I was a different person. I definitely thought then that I could end up on a list at the end of the year.”

He wanted it to be on the GIANTS' list. Kieren is from in Carlingford, which is about one kilometre inside the GIANTS’ academy zone by his calculations. His mother was born in England; his father grew up near Blacktown.

He is the second western Sydney draftee to come to the club – Nick Shipley beat him to it – and the first to have followed our program right the way through, Nick having started at 12 and gone back to soccer for a little while, before returning for good when he was 15.

Kieren played soccer too, as well as a bit of rugby league and a tiny bit of union. He did athletics until he was 16 and showed promise at national level throwing the discus and shot put. But when he was 11, he went to watch a friend play footy for Pennant Hills, and was asked to fill in.

He did, and immediately loved the chaos of the game. He had only watched one or two AFL games at that point, but grew to love it quickly. He joined our academy the next season and is something not many players we pick have ever claimed to be: a GIANTS supporter growing up.

“I got into the academy as soon as I could and I can remember watching us and barracking for us and riding those waves of when we would win one or two games a year,” Kieren said.

“I was still really into my athletics, but towards the end my heart wasn’t there as much as it was with footy. It’s a lot more individual doing athletics; when I was there with one of my best mates we’d be all fun and games but then barely talk to each other once we went out there to compete, so with that and footy it all just sort of fizzled out.

“I remember when I was 14 being asked to train with the older kids who were in the academy, and they were a lot bigger and better than me and it just got me more interested in it all. I didn’t really understand how the bidding worked at that stage but it seemed pretty simple to be part of that and follow a process all the way through, rather than somehow having to find your own way up the ranks.

“You could see that if you kept improving you might be able to get to the club. It was obviously still a hard thing to do and no-one knows when they’re 14 that they’ll be good enough to do it, but you could just see this pathway to take you there.”

Eventually. Kieren wasn’t sure where he sat when he started playing for the NSW-ACT team in the academy series early last season. But during his first game there he started to realise how much bigger and stronger he was than the other kids.

Playing for the Allies in the national championships he felt stronger again, and the work he got to do with Mumford taught him more and more about how to play in the ruck. “I still have a lot of things to get better at,” he said, “but he pushed me and kept encouraging me. He just kept telling me to actually have a go.”


More in the link about draft night for him

 

[fridgeman]

Briggs Buys In

Promising Western Sydney ruckman Kieren Briggs is the latest GIANT to extend his contract with the club, re-signing for another two years.

www.gwsgiants.com.au

No doubt about the re-signing and hopefully a big off season will see him able to step up to AFL level football

 

[tenderwarrior]

How is Briggs tracking? He seems to have a few great tools that suggest he could be an AFL-level ruckman, but where does he fit long-term for you guys?

 

[Giant Strides]

Local Sydney product and rising ruck star Kieren Briggs has extended his contract with the club for a further two years.

Already contracted for 2024, Briggs has put pen to paper to remain in the orange and charcoal until at least the end of 2026. The 23-year-old, who has played the last 15 games straight, said it was a very easy decision for the local Sydneysider.

“I think we’re building something really special at the club and I’m really excited to be part of it for the next three years,” he said. “The decision is made a bit easier being from Sydney and Sydney being home so I’m close to family, but the GIANTS are my family too, so I’ve just loved it.”

After playing nine games since his debut in 2021, Briggs came into the GIANTS’ side in round 10 and never looked back – rated as the number one ruck in the competition for both clearances and centre clearances. Briggs – also a GIANTS Academy graduate - said he always had faith in his ability, but his rise to the top echelons of rucks in the game has taken even him by surprise.

“It’s been a bit of a surprise,” he admitted. “I knew I’ve always had the ability, but it’s been really nice to pay back the time and the effort all the coaches have put into me the last few years, especially Shane [Mumford] – he'll love that, he comes up in everything. It’s been really pleasing and just having the belief in the playing group as well.”

 

[Giant Strides]

Nice story on our 2024 season prospects using Keiran Briggs as the conduit:

'We're a genuine chance': Breakout Giant not shying away from flag hype

Ruckman Kieren Briggs said the Giants are relishing the hype and expectation surrounding them after last season's surge to the finals

www.afl.com.au