Jade Pregelj


Jade Pregelj is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Gold Coast and Brisbane in the AFL Women's competition.

Early life

Pregelj was born and raised in Logan, Queensland and attended Shailer Park State High School throughout her teenage years. She began playing junior football at the age of 10 and joined the South East Suns [Australian Football Club|Logan City Cobras] as a teenager. While playing for Logan alongside future AFLW superstars Katie Brennan and Aasta O'Connor, Pregelj played in five straight QAFLW premierships and was awarded back-to-back league best and fairest honours in 2010 and 2011. She later decided to quit football and enlisted with the Australian Army in January 2015. In a remarkable twist, she relocated to Townsville to continue her military service in 2018 and was reacquainted with a former junior coach and Gold Coast Suns head of women's football Fiona McLarty who convinced Pregelj to begin playing football again.

AFLW career

Pregelj was drafted by the Gold Coast Suns with the 86th pick in the 2019 [AFL Women's draft#Draft|2019 AFL Women's draft]. She made her AFLW debut against Greater [Western Sydney Giants|Greater Western Sydney] in round 1 of the 2020 AFL Women's season and was selected to play in every game of the 2020 AFLW season. She went on to be selected in the initial 40-woman squad for the 2020 AFL Women's All-Australian team for her inaugural AFLW season performance. She tore her anterior cruciate ligament during 2022 season 6. In March 2023, Pregelj was delisted by Gold Coast.
A few weeks later, Pregelj was signed by Brisbane as a delisted free agent. She made her Lions debut in round 1, 2023, but was omitted from the lineup the following week. She then injured her ACL once more, ruling her out for the remainder of the season. After a second season on the Lions' list, she announced her retirement from the AFLW. She finished her career having played nineteen games for Gold Coast and one for Brisbane.

Statistics

! colspan="3" | Career
! 20 !! 0 !! 1 !! 149 !! 38 !! 187 !! 38 !! 40 !! 0.0 !! 0.1 !! 7.5 !! 1.9 !! 9.4 !! 1.9 !! 2.0 !! 0