East Fremantle young gun Jed Hagan on playing above his age, Harry Taylor’s influence and going the extra mile from Geraldton

Jed Hagan is in the rare position of having one foot in both camps ahead of Saturday’s State under-19s versus under-17s trial match at Revo Fitness Stadium. The East Fremantle young gun will slot into the older team, despite only being 16 years of age and representing WA in the 17s carnival opener against South Australia in Adelaide last month. He was the only player picked in both the 19s and 17s carnival squads in a massive show of confidence for the highly-rated 2022 AFL draft prospect. “I’m keen to give it a good crack and put my best foot forward on Saturday,” Hagan said. “If that means playing a role for the team and not being one of the main players, I’m more than happy to do that. “We’ll see how it goes on Saturday and hopefully I’ll be in contention to play in the 19s carnival.” Punching above his weight - or age - is nothing new to the Geraldton-bred midfielder, who won his first of two JL Williams Medals, given to the best player at the School Sports Australia Under-15s AFL Championship, as a bottom-ager. He followed in the footsteps of Geelong captain Joel Selwood, Richmond great Joel Bowden and North Melbourne pair Tarryn Thomas and Luke Davies-Uniacke to win the award, but was the only player to ever win it twice. The versatile ball magnet also made his WAFL colts debut at 15 last season and earned a senior berth for local club Brigades in the Great Northern league earlier in the year. “I haven’t really done anything out of the ordinary, it’s just been a lot of training and stuff like that,” Hagan said. “I’ve put in a lot of work and the opportunities have come for me so I’ve tried to take them with both hands I guess.” That hard work and dedication to his AFL dreams include more than a nine-hour round-trip from his home town of Geraldton to Perth every Friday, staying in a hotel that night before fronting up for colts the following morning. He’s already racked up 16 colts appearances for the Sharks, the equivalent of 13,760km in the family car. “It’s a big commitment but we just make the effort, each Friday we travel down,” Hagan said. “No matter what game it is, we come down basically every weekend to Perth to play footy and head back every Saturday afternoon and get back Saturday night. “I go to school Monday to Friday in Geraldton as well as getting a bit of training in.” Part of the Sharks’ Mid West Academy, Hagan is loving getting to learn off coach and Geelong great Harry Taylor who moved back to the region after his decorated AFL career came to an end after last year’s grand final. “Harry has been massive for me and a really great mentor and I’m extremely grateful to be able to talk to him whenever I need really,” he said. “In terms of going through vision and things like that, he’s had a massive impact on my game for sure. “We’ve worked on a few things together to try and improve my game and whenever I need something, Harry is there for me to lean on.” A West Coast member since he was born, Hagan can’t help but be inspired by current Eagles Josh Kennedy and Jamie Cripps’ journey from the Mid West to an AFL flag. Saturday’s match will be streamed live and exclusive on thewest.com.au from 12.30pm.