{"id":838647,"date":"2026-08-01T22:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838647\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T22:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:43:24","slug":"jed-richardson-turned-down-st-kilda-to-join-tasmania-jackjumpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838647\/","title":{"rendered":"Jed Richardson turned down St Kilda to join Tasmania JackJumpers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jed Richardson had a pathway to the AFL before he turned his back on football to chase his love of basketball and now the 22-year-old has locked in a development player spot with the Tasmania JackJumpers.<\/p>\n

Richardson, who stands 6 foot 10, grew up in Brisbane and played club footy alongside his younger brother Billy with dreams of making the AFL.<\/p>\n

But when COVID hit during Year 11, he found himself shooting hoops in the front yard instead of joining classes on Zoom.<\/p>\n

It was not until 2024 that he committed fully to basketball, despite interest from St Kilda.<\/p>\n

\"\"St Kilda flew Richardson to Melbourne before he chose basketball<\/p>\n

\u201cSt Kilda flew me down to Melbourne for a couple of sessions and they flew up to Brisbane to do a couple of sessions with me,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, it just wasn\u2019t for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The JackJumpers open their NBL27 season on September 21<\/p>\n

\u201cI just fell in love with basketball more and more. It\u2019s much more fun and the satisfaction of the ball going through the hoop or getting a dunk, you just can\u2019t beat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His football background has given him an athleticism that has already impressed JackJumpers staff, particularly his agility, endurance and jumping ability.<\/p>\n

Coach Scott Roth said Richardson\u2019s potential is enormous.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a hell of a kid,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Coach Scott Roth described Richardson\u2019s potential as enormous<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready he\u2019s very athletic and his ability to get up and down the floor will be a huge asset for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s reaction to landing the role was something Roth said he had never seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made all of us jump backwards,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had that kind of reaction from anyone, it made us very emotional and clearly he was a mix of excited and relieved to have found his pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The 22-year-old stands 6 foot 10 and grew up in Brisbane<\/p>\n

His brother Billy now plays for the Saints in the VFL.<\/p>\n

Richardson said it is \u201cprobably a good thing we\u2019re not in the same code, now we can support each other and there\u2019s no sibling rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The JackJumpers open their NBL27 season on September 21 at MyState Bank Arena, with their first home game at the Silverdome on October 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jed Richardson had a pathway to the AFL before he turned his back on football to chase his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-838647","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838647","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=838647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}