Jewish Aussie Rules Football Player Harry Sheezel Dazzles in Debut
David Lange
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Back in November, I posted about Harry Sheezel, a young Jewish man drafted by the North Melbourne Australian Rules Football club, the first Jewish player to enter the league since 1999. Unfortunately, this was not a feelgood post, because Harry was subjected to online antisemitic abuse.
Fast forward to yesterday, and Harry made his debut – against my team the West Coast Eagles, no less – and he had one hell of a game.
BOOM draftee Harry Sheezel appears poised for a run of games at half-back after his exceptional debut helped steer North Melbourne to a five-point victory over West Coast in Alastair Clarkson’s first game as Kangaroos coach.
No.3 draft pick Sheezel (34 disposals, 625 metres gained) was drafted as a forward-midfielder but stole the show on debut off half-back, delivering a performance reminiscent of Rising Star Nick Daicos’ 2022 at Collingwood.
His 34 touches are the most by a debutant since Greg Williams picked up 38 in his first game in 1984.
“He is a pretty special talent for us,” Clarkson said.
“We just really lacked some polish in our back half … he did give us a little bit of that class.
I suspect anyone daring to subject him to antisemitic abuse again is going to feel the full wrath of even more people than before.
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David Lange
