Jack Higgins is leading the St Kilda goalkicking by a goal per game already, and is probably going to win it due to gun full forward Max King watching on from the sidelines with long-term injury and Dan Butler yet to appear with an Achilles problem. If the Saints are to challenge for a top eight spot in 2025, they need Higgins to have a Stephen Milne or Toby Greene kind of year with at least 50 goals and a lot of coattails for the kids and roleplayers around him to ride. At least he has largely fixed his early-career goalkicking yips... or you hope he has.
Jack Higgins is leading the St Kilda goalkicking by a goal per game already, and is probably going to win it due to gun full forward Max King watching on from the sidelines with long-term injury and Dan Butler yet to appear with an Achilles problem. If the Saints are to challenge for a top eight spot in 2025, they need Higgins to have a Stephen Milne or Toby Greene kind of year with at least 50 goals and a lot of coattails for the kids and roleplayers around him to ride. At least he has largely fixed his early-career goalkicking yips... or you hope he has.
Jack Higgins has had an unwanted reputation attached to him for years of being the last bloke you want kicking for your life, a string of crucial missed set shots being more than enough evidence. Quietly, in a year for St Kilda they would rather forget, Higgins has figured out whatever deficiencies were in his kicking technique to become a far more reliable conveyance on the set shot than most footy fans would remember. He is not the first spray merchant to figure out his biomechanics late in his career, and he deserves more respect than he gets.
Jack Higgins was the subject of most media attention after last week's game with headlines (including from this organ) making a pun on his name to highlight his inaccuracy in front of goals, including two missed attempts in the last five minutes of the close loss to the Swans. The furore over his mindset, which reportedly was poor after the game, glossed over the fact that he had otherwise played out of his skin in that game, creating many of those shots on goal with his own good work even if he didn't finish them off. For fantasy purposes, he's a gut play today, seeking redemption.
Wild ride for Higgins
Bleeding on the brain halted Jack Higgins' second season, after going at about the same rates as his impressive debut campaign then being dropped to the VFL for three games before a surprise hospital visit that uncovered a birth abnormality. This is a player welfare story, not a fantasy sports story. The club is making big noises about him playing early, possibly for his own confidence. They will give Higgins as long as he needs to recover from such a nasty-sounding condition.
Higgins jockeys for position
The hype around Jack Higgins last preseason was that he could be the second coming of Dayne Zorko. That may still happen, but so far his role at Richmond has started too deep and he only managed to hit 20 disposals four times for the season with an average of 16. Eight goals from his first four games was also buzz-worthy; seven from his next 13, not so much. Higgins can be an excitement machine, but like most forward pockets he can go missing for entire months. His second year is not the one to draft him, though he might be a mid-season pick up.
Bit of magic in Higgins
A move from midfield to attack late in his last junior year paid off for Jack Higgins with the Morrish Medal, averaging two goals from 24 disposals with almost half of them contested, plus finishing top two in the TAC Cup in score assists and score involvements. He has already drawn comparisons with Dayne Zorko, with much made of his singular focus on his footy career as he quit school at 17. If Zorko really is the template, Higgins is a serious fantasy prospect for draft leagues because the Lion came sprinting out of the blocks in his first year. Richmond in 2018 is a different side than Brisbane in 2012 though, and he will have to fight his way past a lot of blokes wearing shiny jewellery. Perhaps he will be Brett Deledio, who began too slowly to be startable. Worth a flier at worst.
