Jackson Mead has been training as a defender over the pre-season. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
In his seventh year of AFL football, Jackson Mead is embracing\u00a0a\u00a0new role in\u00a0defence, and\u00a0is\u00a0enjoying\u00a0fresh leadership\u00a0in the football department.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under new senior coach Josh Carr, Mead has made the move to the backline\u00a0after\u00a0spending\u00a0most of his time\u00a0in\u00a0the AFL system as a mid-forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a024-year-old spoke to the Adelaide media on Monday, touching on his off-season gains,\u00a0his\u00a0positional move, and how\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0enjoying pre-season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on pre-season\u00a0
\u201cIt’s\u00a0good.\u00a0It’s\u00a0nice to have a bit of a change and play a bit more half back,\u00a0down\u00a0in\u00a0defence.\u00a0So\u00a0enjoying that for a change. And\u00a0there’s\u00a0plenty of new coaches and\u00a0new ideas\u00a0around so\u00a0it’s\u00a0enjoyable,\u00a0it’s\u00a0nice and fresh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on his move to the backline\u00a0
\u201cWe\u00a0sort of posed\u00a0a question\u00a0in\u00a0my exit meeting last year.\u00a0I\u00a0have\u00a0been playing as\u00a0a\u00a0midfielder\u00a0for the last sort of six years, training there, and always game day, you know, ended up on a wing or half forward. So,\u00a0we\u00a0just\u00a0asked\u00a0the question,\u00a0how\u00a0can I\u00a0better use my time\u00a0and\u00a0either train fully as a wing or\u00a0how\u00a0about playing half back?\u00a0And\u00a0yeah,\u00a0rolled\u00a0with that and\u00a0I\u00a0feel like\u00a0we’ve\u00a0got a good\u00a0position\u00a0and\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0got good traits\u00a0where\u00a0I can slot in there and add to the team. So,\u00a0yeah,\u00a0it’s\u00a0going\u00a0good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mead said he is enjoying the positional move, having spent some time there in the last couple of games in 2025. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Mead on enjoying the positional move\u00a0
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0really enjoying\u00a0it.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0got a good group down there to learn from.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0got Kane Farrell and Connor\u00a0Rozee\u00a0who are\u00a0exceptional\u00a0high half backs.\u00a0So\u00a0a\u00a0lot\u00a0of good characters to learn from there. And\u00a0as I said,\u00a0I feel like I can\u00a0slot in nicely\u00a0and\u00a0add to the team.\u00a0I\u00a0played\u00a0probably the\u00a0last two and a half games\u00a0(down back), so\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0able to finish the year there\u00a0which added to\u00a0the end of season\u00a0convo that we had.\u00a0But,\u00a0I’m\u00a0happy to play\u00a0wherever.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0played, obviously mid and\u00a0wing\u00a0for a bit over the last few\u00a0years, and\u00a0then started up half forward as well.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0really enjoying\u00a0playing\u00a0at\u00a0half back\u00a0at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first few years\u00a0I\u00a0obviously slotted in wherever I needed to, like training as a midfielder\u00a0for the whole time here, and then\u00a0under Kenny, obviously playing a bit more wing and half forward. And you know, I was happy to do that, and really love that, because\u00a0you get to learn so much about yourself and get to\u00a0add to\u00a0yourself as a footballer as well. But\u00a0yeah, obviously now\u00a0it’s\u00a0half back and really enjoying that now too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on the skillset\u00a0required\u00a0for the backline\u00a0
\u201cIt’s\u00a0obviously\u00a0an\u00a0emphasis on contest\u00a0so\u00a0I\u00a0really thrive on that. And obviously using my skills and\u00a0probably going\u00a0at\u00a0the game a bit more,\u00a0I think it\u00a0helps me just to be a bit more direct and get the ball moving forward rather than sideways. So\u00a0that’s\u00a0something that\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been working on over the\u00a0last\u00a0six weeks of training.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead believes the backline will complement his skill set, allowing him to transition the ball more forward than he has in the past. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Mead on the evolving game style\u00a0
\u201cI think it’s going to be probably just a bit more free flowing\u2026 a bit more freedom in offence to play what you see, and take the game on, whoever’s hands the ball\u2019s in. And then defensively, just a bit more in tune, defending as a team, and probably just trying to work on that connection from, midfield to forward, to forward to backs, to backs to mid. So having a full sort of in tune mentality and doing everything together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on his off-season gains\u00a0
\u201cThere’s\u00a0been\u00a0a bit of an emphasis to get bigger and stronger\u00a0as a whole group.\u00a0In the contest,\u00a0we\u00a0got bullied a little bit last year\u00a0and\u00a0probably the\u00a0last few years.\u00a0So\u00a0it was an emphasis for the whole group to attack the gym and really\u00a0get after it. But\u00a0obviously,\u00a0me\u00a0just getting older,\u00a0another year, another\u00a0pre-season, that obviously helps quite a bit as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on the academy boys\u00a0training last week\u00a0
\u201cI think it\u00a0was a bit different when I was coming through, like the\u00a0academy\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0as dense.\u00a0There was,\u00a0I\u00a0think,\u00a0me and Trent Burgoyne\u00a0came through, and then Taj Schofield, so\u00a0there were\u00a0probably\u00a0only\u00a0two or three\u00a0around my age,\u00a0whereas,\u00a0the\u00a0other day, there\u00a0was\u00a0probably, like, eight boys here.\u00a0So\u00a0it was good for them to come in as a group and\u00a0probably feel\u00a0a bit more comfortable. And I think the boys do it\u00a0really well\u00a0now where we\u00a0get around them and make them feel at home. So,\u00a0yeah,\u00a0it’s\u00a0really good\u00a0to have those guys coming\u00a0through.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on\u00a0breaking out from his dad\u2019s shadow\u00a0
\u201cI think early days you\u00a0probably feel\u00a0like\u00a0you’re\u00a0someone’s son, and I guess until you\u00a0sort of play\u00a0a few games of AFL and feel comfortable, you know, that kind of\u00a0goes. Obviously for me,\u00a0Jase (Burgoyne)\u00a0and Horny (Jason Horne-Francis) to\u00a0an extent,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0known as\u00a0that name, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0normal for me now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mead on\u00a0the\u00a0enjoyment of pre-season\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cYeah,\u00a0it’s\u00a0good, as I said,\u00a0there’s\u00a0no sort of certain way with how we want to play, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0good to have a bit more freedom in offence and just play what you see. And you know, all the\u00a0boys are thriving and obviously pre-season is a\u00a0pretty fun\u00a0time where you just\u00a0get to work\u00a0really hard\u00a0and work on\u00a0game\u00a0plan stuff and\u00a0(work on)\u00a0connection with the boys from up the field. So\u00a0yeah,\u00a0everyone’s\u00a0having\u00a0good fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jackson Mead has been training as a defender over the pre-season. Image: Matt Sampson. In his seventh year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-422868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422868","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=422868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}