Neville Jetta

Neville Jetta
Jetta with Melbourne in July 2019
Personal information
Full name Neville Jetta
Date of birth (1990-02-12) 12 February 1990 (age 34)
Place of birth Bunbury, Western Australia
Original team(s) Swan Districts (WAFL)
Draft No. 51, 2008 national draft
Debut Round 1, 2009, Melbourne vs. North Melbourne, at MCG
Height 180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 82 kg (181 lb)
Position(s) Defender
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2009–2021 Melbourne 159 (24)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
2020 All-Stars 1 (0)
International team honours
2017 Australia 2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of round 15, 2021.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 2017.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Neville Jetta (born 12 February 1990) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Jetta was drafted by Melbourne with the 51st selection in the 2008 national draft. He had previously been playing with Swan Districts in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). In September 2008 he was awarded the Mel Whinnen Medal for being the best player in the Swans colts grand final win.[1]

Both Jetta and fellow Melbourne draftee Jamie Bennell come from Bunbury and attended the same primary school. Jetta is the cousin of Lewis Jetta of the West Coast Eagles and also a distant cousin of Leroy Jetta, who played for Essendon.[2]

Jetta and Bennell were both named to make their AFL debuts together in the opening round of the 2009 AFL season.[3]

During the 2013 AFL season, Jetta fell out of favour at the Demons, playing only five games due to form and being unable to find a permanent position. This led to Jetta being delisted at the season's end. Due to the appointment of Paul Roos as senior coach, Jetta was provided with another chance and was redrafted as a rookie for the 2014 AFL season.

During the 2014 AFL season, Jetta was promoted to the senior list due to injuries to Jesse Hogan and Mitch Clark. Jetta cemented a spot in Melbourne's back six where he arguably played the best football of his career playing as a small defender, successfully negating small forwards such as Eddie Betts, Chad Wingard and Luke Dahlhaus.

In 2018, Jetta was awarded the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award for his work supporting Indigenous youth through various school-based programs as well as his ambassador roles with Red Cross and Headspace.[4]

Neville was the first Melbourne Football Club player to win the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award, named in memory of Melbourne great Jim Stynes.

On 27 September 2021, Jetta announced his retirement from the AFL.[5] As of October 5th, Jetta was added to the Collingwood team as a new development coach.

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of round 15, 2021[6]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2009 Melbourne 39 15 7 8 115 64 179 43 39 0.5 0.5 7.7 4.3 11.9 2.9 2.6
2010 Melbourne 39 6 6 1 47 36 83 15 26 1.0 0.2 7.8 6.0 13.8 2.5 4.3
2011 Melbourne 39 9 5 3 56 64 120 34 42 0.6 0.3 6.2 7.1 13.3 3.8 4.7
2012 Melbourne 39 6 1 0 39 21 60 21 15 0.2 0.0 6.5 3.5 10.0 3.5 2.5
2013 Melbourne 39 5 0 1 26 18 44 9 20 0.0 0.2 5.2 3.6 8.8 1.8 4.0
2014 Melbourne 39 16 1 0 100 108 208 50 60 0.1 0.0 6.3 6.8 13.0 3.1 3.8
2015 Melbourne 39 16 1 0 76 116 192 43 41 0.1 0.0 4.7 7.3 12.0 2.7 2.6
2016 Melbourne 39 21 0 3 163 172 335 78 63 0.0 0.1 7.8 8.2 16.0 3.7 3.0
2017 Melbourne 39 22 3 0 151 164 315 94 68 0.1 0.0 6.9 7.5 14.4 4.3 3.1
2018 Melbourne 39 25 0 1 142 155 297 75 79 0.0 0.0 5.7 6.2 11.9 3.0 3.2
2019 Melbourne 39 7 0 0 39 36 75 19 20 0.0 0.0 5.6 5.1 10.7 2.7 2.9
2020[a] Melbourne 39 6 0 0 14 23 37 6 8 0.0 0.0 2.3 3.8 6.2 1.0 1.3
2021 Melbourne 39 5 0 0 20 20 40 13 7 0.0 0.0 4.0 4.0 8.0 2.6 1.4
Career 159 24 17 988 997 1985 500 487 0.2 0.1 6.2 6.3 12.5 3.1 3.1

Notes

  1. ^ The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personal life

Jetta has a daughter and a son. He married his partner Samantha on 20 October 2013.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Whinnen Medalists". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. ^ McFarlane, Glenn; Dees swoop on Nick Naitanui's mates; 30 November 2008
  3. ^ Matthews, Bruce (27 March 2009); Kick it to me, Jamie Bennell
  4. ^ "Community Leadership Award". Jim Stynes Foundation. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Neville Jetta calls time on career in red and blue". Melbourne Football Club. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  6. ^ "Neville Jetta". AFL Tables. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  7. ^ Melbourne Demon marries in glam vintage wedding at Red Scooter
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