CONSISTENT, classy and prolific.

That's the word on the newest Blue, Jagga Smith.

A close childhood friend of new teammate Cooper Lord, Smith has been highly regarded for not only his on-field skills, but his off-field leadership.

Carlton National Recruiting Manager, Michael Agresta:

“That consistency is the key word. You’d go a long way to find Jagga playing a poor game: I’m not sure if there is one, and we’ve looked under most rocks. He’s performed at different levels: to go up and perform at VFL level, school level last year and national level, he’s an outstanding character. He’s going to be a good player.

AFL Talent Ambassador, Kevin Sheehan:

“A lively and creative midfielder who is a prolific ball-winner on the inside with elite distribution by hand and foot. He showed the rare ability to step through congested situations and maintain his composure at all levels this year, including at VFL level for Richmond. He averaged 29.2 disposals (13.8 contested) at 82 per cent efficiency and 6.8 clearances for Victoria Metro at the National Championships to finish third in the Larke Medal voting. Was also rewarded with the honour of being named captain of the All Australian team. 

“Played a total of 21 games for the year, which comprised two appearances for the Australia U18 team, three for Richmond’s VFL side, 12 for the Oakleigh Chargers as well as four for Victoria Metro. He picked up 650 disposals at an average of 31 per game, which highlighted his amazingly consistent elite performance. Was a runaway winner of the Chargers best and fairest and tested soundly at the Draft Combine, recording 3.04 seconds on the 20m sprint, 8.5 seconds on the agility test and 6:27 on the 2km time trial.”

Vic Metro coach Rob Harding, speaking to SEN and the Herald Sun

“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with him over the last two years at Metro level and he was captain of our National Championships side this year. His leadership, his ability to train hard, to take feedback on board and to keep improving is first-class . . . I think Jagga’s volume of work makes him as close to a surefire pick as you’d like to see.

“Whichever club picks him in the draft, they’re going to get a leader.”

Jagga Smith himself, speaking to FOX Footy:

“It was a really enjoyable season and I think I had a pretty consistent year footy-wise. I think my output didn’t waver from my worst to my best – that’s the thing that I always try to do to keep that gap pretty small.

“I’d say I’m a running player. That’s what I model my game around, my ability to get from contest to contest and be agile and make smart decisions with the ball in hand.

“The one AFL player that I look up to a bit is Zak Butters. I think he’s a similar stature to me and the way he attacks the footy and his dynamic with ball in hand, plus he’s pretty polished with his kicking as well. He’s a player that I’ve tried to look at a fair bit.”

Riley Beveridge on AFL.com.au:

“He can win so much of the footy, he can be evasive, he can have an impact around the ground as well. They’ve needed someone like this. We had him on our show a couple of weeks ago: we got so many messages from club recruiters about how impressive he is for someone his age. He’s been destined for this for such a long period time.

“He’s been preparing for this moment for 12 months. He already finished school, he came through this year he was destined for an AFL club and he’s been training for that. He’s also got a link to Carlton in that one of his best mates right through childhood is Cooper Lord, who was drafted to Carlton as a mid-season draftee midway through the 2024 season.”

Cal Twomey for AFL.com.au:

“The way his season developed was really encouraging. He got it put on him in the mid-season carnival to be more damaging with his disposal: go forward a bit more and make an impact. He went and did it. He’s very coachable, he’s got fast feet — we see a lot of the best midfielders in the game these days are smaller guys with fast feet and fast brains. He’s got that.

“He had 32 disposals and two goals in a crunch game against the Sandringham Dragons, I think that’s where he locked himself in to be a top-five pick.”