Jake Niall
Jake Niall is a senior sports writer at The Age, specialising in AFL football. Jake joined The Age in 1998, having previously worked as a sports writer on The Sunday Age. He writes a blend of news, feature articles and a weekly column during the football season. Before joining The Sunday Age, Jake was a freelance reporter in the US and a regular contributor to The Sunday Age and The Age from Los Angeles, covering diverse areas like politics, earthquakes, celebrity trials and American sport. Jake ghost wrote the autobiography (‘Collingwood and Me’, 1991) of champion Collingwood footballer Peter Daicos. While he writes primarily about the AFL, he spends the month of January covering tennis, especially the Australian Open. In 2008, Jake won the Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards' Best Sports Story in any medium for his profile piece on David Schwarz.
AFL
The least shall be first
Jake Niall Favourite son or long-apprenticed assistant coach, who would you want your club to select?
AFL
Speed before size for trim Bombers
Jake Niall Essendon emphasising endurance over size in preparation for 2013.
Jake Niall
Hawks must prepare for the worst, hope for the best
Jake Niall Lance Franklin's decision on his future will take up a lot of Hawthorn's time and energy.
Essendon engulfed by drug controversy
Michael Gleeson and Jake Niall Essendon has suspended the man who oversaw its fitness program and who will be at the heart of an unprecedented investigation by the Australian drug authority into the AFL club's admission that its...
The journey
Jake Niall Free agency is changing the AFL trading road map, it could be a difficult path for some.
Jake Niall
Father knows best
Jake Niall On Brownlow eve, consider Jobe Watson's career and why he would be a deserving winner.
Free Don
Jake Niall Free agency could bring players to Essendon as the club looks to a brighter future.
Identical wins
Jake Niall The Scott twins are their own men, but, as coaches, their influence on their clubs has parallels.
Out of the hole
Jake Niall It was no groundhog year for the Tigers who appear to be a club escaping the shadows of the past.
From princes to frogs
Jake Niall After the 2001 grand final defeat, the Essendon fairytale turned into a 10-year spell of mediocrity.
The more things change...
Jake Niall Sacking the coach rarely gives clubs the immediate reward they are looking for. Take note, Blues.
AFL
Bomber, Cats rift healing
Jake Niall Relations between Mark Thompson and Geelong appear to be healing.
Buckley and the search for footy utopia
Jake Niall How Collingwood's new coach will differ from the old is one of the most compelling questions of the new AFL season.
AFL
Premierships now a long time coming
Jake Niall Ron Barassi was mocked when he unveiled a five-year plan for Melbourne in the early '80s.
