THE Collingwood Football Club has officially welcomed Jesse White to the team after successfully completing a three-team trade with the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles.
Demonstrating their ability to negotiate for draft picks, the Magpies have not only acquired White but have moved up in the first round of this year’s National Draft from the 11th spot to the sixth.
The trade sees Collingwood receive the sixth and 44th selections of this year’s Draft from West Coast in exchange for picks 11, 31 and 49 from Collingwood and with pick 44 being on-traded to Sydney for White.
“Jesse has a combination of speed, power and height,” said Collingwood national recruiting manager, Derek Hine.
“His versatility was also a factor. Jesse has played key forward, third forward, in the ruck and, with his pace, up on a wing. At 25 he has lots of football ahead of him, he is seasoned so he helps us straight away and, in our view, the best of Jesse White is yet to be seen.”
For his part White is keen on the opportunity to get more playing time after making eighteen appearances for the Swans in the last two years.
“A deal with Adelaide became a possibility late last year but when that fell through I decided the best thing I could do was to have the best season possible and make things happen, open up some other doors,” White said.
“I just wanted to play, regularly, and then Collingwood came into the picture which coincided with my family moving back to Victoria from the Gold Coast. I grew up in Richmond until I was three, so I’ve sort of come full circle.
“It was exciting to think that Collingwood was an option. They’re a big club that plays on the MCG and is involved in ANZAC Day and so many of the blockbusters. They’ve been playing finals and seem to have a big group of very good young players coming through. I knew that playing in Melbourne, for Collingwood, was the right mix for me.”
Welcome aboard, @jessewhite_! Make sure you send him a tweet of support and get behind our new key forward #gopies pic.twitter.com/VCXlWMthSS
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) October 21, 2013