Laurie boosts Tigers stocks

By Ken Casellas

Dual Claremont premiership player Jess Laurie is returning to Perth after three years in Melbourne and is looking forward keenly to resuming with the Tigers in 2017.

The tough 26-year-old half-back flanker trained with Claremont at John XXIII College Oval on Wednesday night and aims to work hard when the pre-season preparation resumes after the Christmas break.

He will return to Melbourne to tidy up any loose ends before driving across the Nullarbor back to Perth early next month.

Laurie, who was recruited from Denmark in Claremont’s Great Southern zone, has appeared in 68 league matches and in eight Foxtel Cup matches for the Tigers. A member of the WA under-16 and under-18 sides, he finished fourth in the colts fairest-and-best count in 2007 when that squad was coached by Simon McPhee.

He was Claremont’s colts co-captain with Jake Murphy in 2008 when he also graduated to the reserves side and made two appearances in the league team.

He was taken as a rookie by Port Adelaide in the 2009 AFL draft, but was delisted after one year and returned to Claremont. He was a member of Claremont’s league premiership sides in 2011 and 2012 and then after the 2013 season he moved to Victoria to further his business career.

In Melbourne he combined work with football and he enjoyed a strong season this year with Aberfeldie in the Essendon District Football League when one of his teammates was Luke Blackwell, the former Claremont champion and four-time winner of the E. B. Cook Medal as the league side’s fairest-and-best player.

Laurie and Blackwell shared the disappointment of playing in the losing grand final side against Keilor this year after Aberfeldie had ended a 41-year drought by winning the premiership with a 76-point demolition of Greenvale in the 2015 grand final.

High-marking forward Tom Lee, a teammate of Laurie’s in Claremont’s 2011 and 2012 league grand final victories, also is looking forward to returning to action with the Tigers next year after appearing in 17 AFL matches for St Kilda over the past four years.

Related Articles:

Lee Returns to Tigerland - Read HERE 

Tigers 2017 Coaching Panel - Read HERE