Jones continues to rise

by LES EVERETT

HARD running South Fremantle player Clint Jones has finally got his chance in the AFL. In today's rookie draft he was taken at nine by St kilda.

c jones

Clint Jones with his two Hughes Medals. Photo by Les Everett

Jones had a stellar season in 2005 winning the Hughes Medal in a premiership year. While South Fremantle couldn't quite repeat the premiership success Jones took his game to another level.

He had an astounding 306 handballs for the season - 54 more than anyone else in the WAFL while his 620 disposals placed him second in the competition. The 22-year-old wingman's ability to get his hands on the ball comes as the result of a simple philosophy. "If you don't run you're not going to get hold of the footy," he said, "running has always been a strength of mine and I try to run as hard as I can in every game."

After his success in 2005 Jones was the object of greater attention from opposition teams and he found the best way to break tags was to cover plenty of ground. Hard running often sent him well forward and he kicked 14 goals for the season and had a hand in many more.

Jones represented Western Australia against South Australia in Adelaide this year and finished third in the Sandover Medal voting to further enhance his status as one of the WAFL's best performers.

With the Bulldogs losing just four home and away games in 2006 Jones felt the season overall was similar to the successful 2005 campaign. "From the word go, with the same sort of players as we had last year, we always thought back-to-back premierships was a realistic goal," he said. "But I'm not sure we were travelling as well at the end of the season as we were last year.

"We made the grand final - so we were going pretty well - but on the day Subi were just way too good for us. "Some of the young guys would have got a bit of experience out of that so I think we can give ourselves a chance again next year."

Jones said he never up his dream of playing in the AFL. "It's all about opportunity," he said.

When he topped the voting for the 2006 Hughes Medal Clint Jones became just the 11th player to win consecutive South Fremantle fairest and best awards since 1926.

12 December 2006

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