Toast Welcome to the SUNS, Jake Rogers

[CanYouFeelTheSunburn]

Welcome to the SUNS Jake, A tenacious livewire through the midfield, the Gold Coast Suns Academy member is a one-touch player with great vision and creativity. Showed all those traits at the National Championship by starring for the Allies where he consistently set up his team through the middle of the ground.

 

[exile]

 

[KaySwizzle]

That first highlight is all I need to see. Makes a mistake with the kick, but keeps up the pressure and wins the ball back with a rundown tackle.

Touk is the perfect mentor for him. Rogers had a few nice kicks in there too, so maybe there is some upside to his game as he develops. Good to see.

 

[GC2015]

May as well share some info about Rogers as well. So what do we know about Jake? He was born in Melbourne but moved to the Gold Coast 13 years ago at five years of age. His mother is South African and his father is Australian. He is a product of the Broadbeach Cats and Varsity College's AFL ASPIRE Program. He first started playing footy for Broadbeach at the U9s level. A self confessed mad Collingwood fan prior to tonight, he admitted on the draft coverage that he's going to have to convert his family to the Suns now. It should be mentioned that he named Gary Ablett Jr as his idol growing up and in particular his years at the Suns.

His game has often been compared to another Broadbeach product in Dayne Zorko

15

Dayne Zorko

Age

35

Ht

175cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.4

5star

K

13.2

5star

HB

8.2

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

6.0

5star

CL

3.6

5star

D

14.0

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

5.0

3star

M

2.0

2star

T

5.0

5star

CL

2.0

4star

D

16.4

4star

K

9.8

4star

HB

6.6

4star

M

5.2

5star

T

6.6

5star

CL

1.2

4star

in his younger days and more recently Kozzie Pickett. I suspect we'll see Rogers start his career in a similar way by playing as a quick small forward before graduating into our midfield later down the track. He was asked about his junior rugby league playing days (playing fullback) on Fox Footy tonight and confirmed it was really just a muck around for the Varsity College league team and that he was always going to pursue Aussie rules.

Wouldn't surprise me if Rogers ends up being the first of our draftees to make his AFL debut next year as there seems to be a spot open for him as a small forward. It also wouldn't surprise me if that debut comes in the opening round against Richmond. Get the feeling Dimma is going to be a big fan of Jake and what he brings to the team.

 

[RowellAnderson12]

That first highlight is all I need to see. Makes a mistake with the kick, but keeps up the pressure and wins the ball back with a rundown tackle.

Touk is the perfect mentor for him. Rogers had a few nice kicks in there too, so maybe there is some upside to his game as he develops. Good to see.

He's already got Touk & Noah mentoring him for a year, could be anything!

 

[eighties]

Love we have someone with pace! who looks like he can get the ball and use it too. He will be playing early on for sure.

 

[GC2015]

Malceski it's a great learning environment

Former SUNS player and new assistant coach Nick Malceski fronts the media following a pre=season training session.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

Malceski confirms towards the end of this press conference that he coached against Jake Rogers in June 2022 when Labrador took on Broadbeach in a senior QAFL game and Rogers dominated as a 16 year old in a close 3-point win for Broady that day. Had a look online and sure enough Rogers was voted best on in that game with 25 disposals and 2 goals. In fact, it was such an iconic performance that our media team wrote an article about it last month:

How a double-tag sparked Rogers’ rise to the AFL

A sliding doors moment when he was 16 gave Jake Rogers belief he had what it takes to become an AFL footballer one day.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

Pretty cool to see two people from local clubs crossing paths again at the top level two years later. Guess it just goes to show local footy on the GC has come a long way and I can't help but think this is a good thing for us to have people at the club with local roots. Malceski also confirmed that his 10 year old son Harrison now loves footy so he could definitely be one to keep an eye on for our academy.

This is such a great set of pictures of Jake and really rams home how much of a local he is. An 11 year old Broadbeach junior Rogers with one of his Suns heroes Witts and now an 18 year old Suns player Rogers with his teammate Witts: