North Launceston coach Taylor Whitford has thrown his support behind gun forward Jackson Callow as the 18-year-old makes his final push towards being drafted to the AFL.
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Widely tipped as the state's brightest draft prospect for 2020, the former Prospect Hawk was a shining light in last year's Tassie Devils campaign.
Playing as an under-ager, Callow booted 24 goals in 14 games to finish equal third in the NAB League goalkicking charts alongside Western Bulldogs academy prospect and potential number one pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
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Callow has impressed throughout his junior career and fledgling TSL career - famously kicking three goals in a stellar grand final performance last year - but is still fighting off question marks.
"Everyone's pretty quick to knock Jackson in the fact that his exploits are so good - his hands are the best that I've seen for a kid of his age, with his aerobic capacity he can run all day - but they want to look at the negatives with his decision making and kicking and things like that which I think is a little bit unfair for Jackson," Whitford said.
"He's come through the junior ranks where he's just been the full-forward every time - he's the biggest kid in the side so you put him at full-forward, he'll take a mark, kick a goal, that was his job.
"Now people are seeing him as an AFL recruit where [the question is] 'is he big enough to play as a key forward in the AFL?' Probably not, so he's got to have other strings to his bow and to his credit he's taken that feedback on board - he's all class.
"We've spent numerous sessions over that COVID period working on his kicking and his decision making and hopefully that comes to fruition during the year.
"But he's a super talent and a really level-headed kid as well and that goes a long way I think."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
Winning a TSL premiership in just his fourth senior game, Callow completed game number five on the weekend and collected 12 touches and six marks.
Three marks were contested including one on the 50m arc, which he followed up with a glorious set shot that travelled 55-plus metres.
Whitford said he was happy to have Callow available for selection each week with the NAB League looking unlikely due to Victoria's coronavirus setback.
"He's been around our club for two or three years now but only played a couple of games - one being a grand final," Whitford said.
"We didn't expect to get him at all this year, we expected him to be in the Tarryn [Thomas] mould where we would see him maybe once or twice during the year and at the end of the year hopefully we'd get him back in the last couple of rounds, but at this stage we'll get him for most of the year which is exciting for us.
"So our expectation is he's not playing for us next year - we've just got to do everything we can as a footy club to give him that exposure so he's not with us and he's over in the big league.
"We just hope the TSL can project these young recruits and put them out there in the limelight."