{"id":288794,"date":"2025-11-16T18:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288794\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T18:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:39:09","slug":"added-pressure-to-his-game-collingwood-nga-prospect-in-calculations-for-night-two-of-afl-draft-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/288794\/","title":{"rendered":"“Added pressure to his game”: Collingwood NGA prospect in calculations for night two of AFL Draft – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Collingwood Next Generation Academy forward Jai Saxena remains a chance of being selected late in the National Draft on Thursday or at the rookie draft on Friday.<\/p>\n

Saxena, whose Christian name is pronounced ‘Jeh’, was a sharp riser early in 2025, kicking nine goals in the first three games of Coates League for Oakleigh, which included an impressive five-goal haul.<\/p>\n

It was enough to secure selection in Vic Metro’s squad and he played two games at the U18s National Championships, with his increased running capacity particularly noteworthy this season.<\/p>\n

Saxena, who also entertained as a small forward for Xavier College, did not get a state combine invite but could get his chance at the Pies.<\/p>\n

The 179cm prospect has Next Generation Academy status courtesy of his parents Indian heritage and would be the first player with Indian heritage on both sides of his families to play an AFL<\/a> game, should he reach the highest level.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was enormous growth,\u201d 2025 Oakleigh Chargers coach Ash Close said of Saxena.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the first time I saw him was in a trial as a bottom-ager.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was strapped to the goal square and we all knew he kicked goals, but it was sort of a five possession, three goal kind of guy, and that doesn’t stack up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he’s completely evolved into a player who gets up the ground and provides defensive 50 exits, works really hard to get back and added pressure into his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s always looking to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about the first contest of the game against Sandy in the last game of the year, he just put his head over the ball and was really sore after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s not known for it but there’s a level of toughness to him as well \u2013 he hurt his AC joint but played out the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just kept growing and growing and he’s had a terrific year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood Next Generation Academy forward Jai Saxena remains a chance of being selected late in the National Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-288794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}