Australian rules footballer
Australian rules footballer
Nathan Jones
(born 20 January 1988) is a former
Australian rules footballer
known for playing for the
Melbourne Football Club
in the
Australian Football League
. He is the older brother of
St Kilda
player
Zak Jones
.
[2]
He served as the captain of Melbourne from 2014 until he stepped down at the end of the 2019 season.
Early life
[
edit
]
Jones played for the
Dandenong Stingrays
in the
TAC Cup
during his junior career and was selected to play for Vic Metro in the
2005 AFL Under-18 Championships
. He was named in the 2005
Under-18 All-Australian team
as a
follower
.
[3]
He played in the
TAC Cup Grand Final
(now known as NAB League Boys) for Dandenong in 2005 and collected 36 disposals; however, they were defeated by 15 points by
Gippsland Power
.
Growing up, he was a
St Kilda
supporter.
[4]
AFL career
[
edit
]
Jones was drafted to
Melbourne
with their first selection and the 12th overall in the
2005 national draft
.
[5]
He made his debut against the
Western Bulldogs
in Round 17, 2006, at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground
and played the remaining eight games for the season, including the elimination final win against
St Kilda
and the semi-final loss to
Fremantle
. After his fourth match, he earned the Round 20
Rising Star
nomination for his game against the
Kangaroos
, where he collected 25 disposals.
[5]
After Melbourne were eliminated from the finals, he played for Melbourne's
VFL-affiliate
team,
Sandringham
, and played in their premiership side.
Jones played 21 games during 2007 and earned a second
Rising Star
nomination after the round 17 loss to
Port Adelaide
. He finished third in the award behind
Joel Selwood
and
Scott Pendlebury
and received 17 votes out of a possible 45.
[5]
He was the runner-up in Melbourne's
best and fairest
with 190 votes, finishing behind
James McDonald
who received 260 votes.
Jones cemented himself in Melbourne's side by playing 21 games in 2008 in what was a disappointing year for the club, finishing on the bottom of the ladder. He played 21 matches in 2009 in a year where the club received the
wooden spoon
for the second consecutive season. After the Round 2 match against
Collingwood
in 2009, Jones's father was attacked by Collingwood fans in an altercation outside the ground.
[6]
Jones remained a consistent figure in the side, playing every match in 2010 and 2011, including his 100th AFL game in the latter season.
[7]
Jones established himself as Melbourne's leading midfielder in 2012 by winning his first
Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal
as the club's best and fairest;
[8]
in addition, he polled 14 votes in the
Brownlow Medal
count to finish inside the top 20. He was named as vice captain prior to the 2013 season.
[9]
In May 2013, Jones was appointed as interim co-captain alongside
Jack Trengove
, replacing the injured
Jack Grimes
.
[10]
He played every match during the season and won the best and fairest for the second consecutive season, finishing ahead of
Colin Garland
.
[11]
After the appointment of new coach
Paul Roos
, Jones was elected as co-captain alongside Jack Grimes for the 2014 season.
[12]
He played every match for the season, amassing a career-high 610 disposals, the second-highest tally in the league during the home-and-away season, as well as having the fourth-highest number of clearances.
[13]
He won his third consecutive Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal, a feat only previously achieved by club champion
Jim Stynes
.
[14]
At the end of 2014, Jones signed a four-year contract extension with the Demons, practically ensuring he would remain a one-club player.
[15]
In February 2015, after Jack Grimes relinquished the co-captaincy, Jones was announced as sole captain, with
Lynden Dunn
named as vice-captain.
[16]
He played his 200th AFL game in the Round 22 match against
Fremantle
; however, he suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter that forced him to be substituted out of the game.
[17]
He finished fifth in the best-and-fairest count;
[18]
and, despite playing every match for the season, it was announced that he had played most of the season with a neck injury.
[19]
In 2021, the 33-year-old Jones sustained multiple injuries (including a
hamstring
[20]
and later
calf injury
[21]
) that saw him missing the majority of his season (as in 2020, where he'd injured his
quadriceps
[22]
). Nonetheless, Jones became just the second Melbourne player, after
David Neitz
, to reach the 300-game milestone for the club, doing so against
Richmond
in round six.
[23]
After Melbourne qualified for the
2021 AFL Grand Final
, the injured Jones made the decision to return home to Victoria to be with his wife for the birth of their twins.
[24]
He subsequently announced his retirement from the AFL, finishing on 302 games, four short of the club's all-time games record held by Neitz.
[25]
Statistics
[
edit
]
- [26]
Notes
- ^
The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
.
- ^
Statistics include one game in which Jones was a used medical substitute (round 7) and one game in which he was an unused medical substitute (round 15).
Honours and achievements
[
edit
]
Team
Individual
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Lovett, Michael, ed. (31 July 2015). "Pocket Profile?Nathan Jones".
AFL Record, Round 18, 2015
. Melbourne, VIC: AFL Media.
- ^
Schmook, Nathan (23 June 2014).
"Zak Jones' breath of fresh air"
.
sydneyswans.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
13 August
2015
.
- ^
Sheehan, Kevin (5 July 2005).
"NAB AFL U18 Championships - All Australians"
.
AFL.com.au
. Fox Sports Pulse
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
Burgan, Matt; Lewis, Georgina (28 August 2015).
"Jones' journey to 200 AFL games: part one"
. MelbourneFC.com.au
. Retrieved
1 September
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
Lovett, Michael, ed. (February 2015).
AFL Record Season Guide 2015
.
Melbourne
,
Victoria
: AFL Media. p. 512.
- ^
Russell, Mark (18 July 2012).
"Demon player's father 'bashed for telling abusive Pies fan to calm down'
"
.
The Age
.
Fairfax Media
. Retrieved
16 May
2014
.
- ^
Burgan, Matt (20 May 2011).
"Q&A with Nathan Jones"
. melbournefc.com.au
. Retrieved
30 November
2015
.
- ^
"Melbourne Demons midfielder Nathan Jones wins the 'Bluey' Truscott medal as club's best and fairest"
.
Fox Sports (Australia)
.
News Corp Australia
. 14 September 2012
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
Guthrie, Ben (18 January 2013).
"Melbourne unveils new leadership group"
.
MelbourneFC.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
"Jones named a Demons co-captain"
.
AFL.com.au
.
Bigpond
. 9 May 2013
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
Hogan, Jesse (5 September 2013).
"Jones is top Demon"
.
The Age
.
Fairfax Media
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
Warner, Michael (29 January 2014).
"Nathan Jones joins Jack Grimes as co-captain of Melbourne for 2014 season"
.
herald Sun
.
News Corp Australia
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
Guthrie, Ben (11 September 2014).
"Demons keen to keep Nathan Jones"
.
AFL.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
3 November
2014
.
- ^
Ralph, Jon (4 September 2014).
"Melbourne skipper Nathan Jones wins third best and fairest award, Dom Tyson and Bernie Vince follow"
.
The Herald Sun
.
News Corp Australia
. Retrieved
5 September
2014
.
- ^
Clark, Jay (18 December 2014).
"Nathan Jones signs new contract with Melbourne, Demons hope to lure brother Zak from Sydney Swans"
.
Herald Sun
.
News Corp Australia
. Retrieved
11 January
2015
.
- ^
Burgan, Matt (3 February 2015).
"Melbourne announces 2015 leaders"
.
MelbourneFC.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
1 September
2015
.
- ^
Malcolm, Alex (30 August 2015).
"Dockers seal top spot with easy win over Dees"
.
AFL.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
30 August
2015
.
- ^
Guthrie, Ben (11 September 2015).
"Vince ends Jones' streak for maiden Demons crown"
.
AFL.com.au
.
Bigpond
. Retrieved
11 September
2015
.
- ^
Pierik, Jon (11 September 2015).
"Melbourne Demons captain Nathan Jones to have neck surgery"
.
The Age
.
Fairfax Media
. Retrieved
29 September
2015
.
- ^
readMay 13, Jasper Bruceless than 2 min; NewsWire, 2021-5:40PMNCA (13 May 2021).
"AFL veteran suffers nailbiting setback"
.
news
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Injury Report | Jones, Brown and Laurie to miss again"
.
melbournefc.com.au
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
.
- ^
"Nathan Jones left devastated by latest injury setback as Dees roasted for being 'far too ahead of themselves'
"
.
Fox Sports
. 22 August 2020
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
.
- ^
Gibson, Ben (20 April 2021).
"Year-by-year: Jones' journey to 300 games"
. Melbourne FC
. Retrieved
28 January
2023
.
- ^
@7afl (10 September 2021).
"Register"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
11 September
2021
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
"Farewell to a champion: Jones announces his retirement"
. Melbourne Football Club. 15 September 2021
. Retrieved
15 September
2021
.
- ^
"Nathan Jones"
.
AFL Tables
. Retrieved
16 April
2014
.
External links
[
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]
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