Jackson Nelson

DOB

15/3/96

Height

187cm

Weight

81 kg

Junior club

Geelong Falcons/St Mary's JFC

Arrived

Pick 51 in the 2014 national draft

Number

30 (2015-2022)
48 (2023)

Debut

Round 1 2015 vs Western Bulldogs
(221st Eagles player)

Games

102

Goals

2

B&F Top 10

0

Best Finish

16th (2020)

Last app.

Round 23 2022 vs Geelong

Departed

Delisted at the end of the 2022 season

Other clubs

Geelong Falcons (TAC Cup) 2014
East Perth (WAFL) 2015-2018

Victorian utility Jackson Nelson played 102 AFL games for West Coast, before taking the WAFL captaincy after being delisted.

West Coast career[]

After spending much of his formative years in Sydney, Nelson's family moved to Geelong where he played for the Falcons TAC Cup side and was given the opportunity to train for a week with the Cats.^[1]

On being drafted, Nelson was described as having excellent game sense and speed, and as a good ball user by hand and foot. A defender with the potential to progress into the midfield, Nelson performed well beyond expectations in his rookie season, making his debut in the opening round after a strong NAB Challenge campaign. The blonde Nelson played nine of the first ten games before dropping back to East Perth, adding another two games late in the year.

Nelson added just eight games in 2016 and frequently found himself stuck between levels, often held over as an emergency for the senior side and ending up missing action entirely. He moved from defence into the midfield mid-season and looked promising, but played in the backline in two late-season AFL appearances.

After returning to defence Nelson showed some good form early in 2017 but was hampered by wrist and hamstring injuries, losing his spot shortly before the finals after adding 13 games to his senior tally. 2018 was similarly frustrating, with Nelson playing 10 of the first 13 games, generally as a lock-down defender, but finding himself out of the senior side in the second half of the year as Tom Cole and Liam Duggan cemented spots in the backline.

Nelson spent most of the first half of 2019 in the reserves, but forced his way into the side (at the expense of Cole) and held his spot as a shutdown small defender, playing his 50th game and participating in finals football for the first time in his career. He was dropped early in 2020 but rebounded to become a backline regular and one of the season's big improvers alongside Duggan and Cole. Nelson managed a career-high 19 games in 2021, used in a variety of roles including occasionally as a tagger. He added another 13 games in 2022, including his 100th appearance, but fell out of favour in the second half of the season. He was delisted at the end of the year, after 102 games in eight seasons.

Post-AFL career[]

Nelson remained with West Coast despite being delisted, named as the captain of the Reserves side for 2023. He played every game in 2023 and was named the side's best and fairest. Unfortunately, he needed knee surgery in the offseason and did not appear during the 2024 season.

Stats[]

AFL	Gm	G	B	K	M	H	D	T	Cl	WAFL	Gm	G	B	K	M	H	D	T
2015	11	1	1	69	25	44	113	25	3	EP	9	4	4	108	52	36	144	26
2016	8	0	1	61	18	36	97	27	8		8	2	2	111	38	60	171	35
2017	13	0	2	104	44	62	166	22	7		2	1	0	19	5	10	29	3
2018	10	0	2	79	36	21	100	8	4		9	0	0	113	36	39	152	18
2019	13	0	0	103	47	49	152	23	8	WCE	7	1	0	117	36	43	160	22
2020	15	0	0	150	61	54	204	31	10	N/A
2021	19	0	1	176	76	57	233	26	14	WCE	2	2	1	42	9	14	56	13
2022	13	1	0	104	46	82	186	28	22		6	4	0	84	30	34	118	30
2023											18	4	3	222	56	150	372	86
2024											0
Tot	102	2	7	846	353	405	1251	190	76
Avg		0.0		8.3	3.5	4.0	12.3	1.9	0.7