Jason Heatley

Jason Heatley (born 21 February 1972) is a former Australian rules football full-forward during the 1990s for Subiaco and St Kilda, whose fast leading sufficiently compensated for a lack of physical strength that he was briefly one of the most successful forwards in the sport.

Heatley started out in the Diamond Valley Football League in Victoria with 118 goals for North Heidelberg and was zoned to Fitzroy who rejected him as too slight for full forward after playing six practice matches before the 1993 season, during three of which he was stationed at full-back. Consequently, he was recruited by Subiaco, where he kicked 111 goals in 1993, winning the Bernie Naylor Medal and kicking the highest aggregate of goals since Warren Ralph kicked 128 in 1983.

Heatley caught the attention of AFL recruiters, and was picked up in the 1993 AFL Draft by the West Coast Eagles, but the same fears that derailed him from signing with Fitzroy prevented him breaking into the strong Eagles team. After three seasons on the list for just three games, Heatley was delisted at the end of 1996. Heatley continued nonetheless to kick goals for Subiaco: 81 in 1994, 123 in 1995 (winning his second Bernie Naylor Medal) and 55 in 1996.

St Kilda picked Heatley up in the 1996 AFL Draft, and he debuted for the Saints in 1997. Heatley kicked 73 goals in 1997, leading St Kilda’s goalkicking and being a vital part of a St Kilda team. In his first game for St Kilda he kicked 5 goals against Collingwood in Round 3. Heatley also kicked a personal best of 9.1 goals that year in Round 14 where St Kilda won by 9 goals against North Melbourne at Waverley Park.