Greater Western Sydney key forward Jeremy Cameron’s meteoric rise was recognised on Monday night when he became the youngest player in 15 years to be named in the AFL’s All-Australian team.
Cameron booted 62 goals to finish third on the league’s goal-kicking table this year, a major achievement given the Giants struggled throughout the season and managed just one win.
Fittingly for a 20-year-old who has been anointed the ‘next Matthew Lloyd’ by many pundits, Cameron became the youngest player to earn All-Australian selection since Essendon’s Lloyd did it at the same age in 1998.
Recent Hall of Fame inductee Lloyd managed the feat by kicking 63 goals in his third season, but that was in a side that tallied nine victories.
Cameron and the vast majority of his teammates at the expansion club are in their second season, while the Dartmoor native did not play his first competitive Australian Rules match until he was 15.
“The Giants will build their team around Jeremy Cameron for the next 10 years. He is that good,” Lloyd wrote on Sunday in his Fairfax Media column.
GWS coach Leon Cameron was full of praise for the young gun, who earlier this month was named the Giants’ club champion.
“This is the biggest individual football achievement in our short history,” Cameron said.
“The most exciting thing for Jeremy and the Giants is there is still a lot of room for improvement and to take his game to another level.”