\n News\n <\/p>\n
\n Collingwood has selected Jai Saxena\u00a0as a\u00a0pre-approved Category A rookie, becoming the second dual-Indian heritage player to be drafted to the AFL.\n <\/p>\n
Collingwood has selected Jai Saxena\u00a0as a\u00a0pre-approved Category A rookie, becoming the second dual-Indian heritage player to be drafted to the AFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jai (pronounced J-air) Saxena was a member of Collingwood\u2019s Next Generation Academy and played for the Oakleigh Chargers in the Coates Talent League, where he displayed an impressive 2025 campaign. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The forward made a sharp entrance this year, kicking nine goals in the first three games for Oakleigh, which included an impressive five-goal haul. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The young talent had\u00a0standout\u00a0performances\u00a0against the Northern Knights,\u00a0booting two goals with 23 disposals and nine marks. He\u00a0went on to\u00a0kick\u00a0five\u00a0goals from 17 touches and six marks against Sandringham.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saxena\u2019s efforts\u00a0throughout the season\u00a0landed him a\u00a0selection\u00a0in the Vic Metro squad, where he made two appearances at the U18s National Championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading into the\u00a0selection,\u00a0Saxena\u00a0spoke to\u00a0Indian Link,\u00a0sharing his drive and excitement\u00a0about\u00a0the possibility of seeing his AFL dream come true.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what colours I wear,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0just be happy playing AFL. Playing at the MCG, that would be surreal,\u201d Saxena said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo footballer of Indian background has played at the elite level yet and that drives me. I want to\u00a0represent\u00a0the community and show that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve\u00a0got to believe in yourself, trust the\u00a0process\u00a0and work hard.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0no reason you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0achieve what you set your mind to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saxena becomes only the second Indian-origin player at the elite level, after Balraj Singh, who was drafted by the Adelaide Crows in 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Next Generation Academy product will be the first player with Indian heritage on both sides of his family to play an AFL game, should he reach the highest level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collingwood National Recruiting Manager Shane\u00a0O\u2019Bree\u00a0welcomed Saxena to the black and white family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased to welcome Jai to Collingwood, another incredible talent through our\u00a0NGA\u00a0who we\u00a0eagerly\u00a0look forward to developing,\u201d\u00a0O\u2019Bree\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been watching him for\u00a0several\u00a0years,\u00a0and he has such\u00a0a great story\u00a0of resilience and\u00a0hard work paying off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough disappointed to not get a game early in the season for Xavier College, he initiated a lot of hard work, which saw his game spike into a great year with the Oakleigh Chargers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be an exciting talent to watch in the forward line and\u00a0will undoubtedly play with a lot of heart and passion on the field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saxena becomes the fifth player to join the\u00a0Collingwood\u00a0throughout\u00a0the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft\u00a0following\u00a0Tyan\u00a0Prindable, Sam Swadling, Zac\u00a0McCarthy\u00a0and Angus Anderson, who all became\u00a0Magpies last night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Collingwood has selected Jai Saxena\u00a0as a\u00a0pre-approved Category A rookie, becoming the second dual-Indian heritage player to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-298841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298841","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=298841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}