Opinion
After a wonderful start to his second season, young Docker Jye Amiss is the Round 11 Rising Star nominee. And not before time according to the Freo supporters on social media who have been out in force for weeks pushing for this nomination.
Click here for more Rising Star nominees.
He’s also the second player named Jye/Jai to be nominated this season, and we can only hope that Jhye Clark’s development continues, and he manages to snare a nomination as well (three different spellings of a single syllable name is of great interest to me, too)!
Amiss grew up in Busselton in south-west Western Australia, playing senior football as a 17 year old in 2021 having joined WAFL team East Perth in the season prior where he played Colts.
A hallmark of his junior career had been injuries, but he managed to avoid those for much of 2021 as he booted 51 goals in just 15 Colts games earning a call up to the Western Australian underage team (no Championships held due to COVID) while also climbing the draft boards.
He was eventually taken at #8 (as expected based on several phantom drafts), and able to stay at ‘home’ (a couple of hours drive away, admittedly!)
Amiss is 196cms tall and whilst his weight is reported as 86kgs I think it’s likely that he is heavier than that – he is a great size for a key forward and is already strong enough in his core to hold his own against big defenders despite not yet turning 20.
While this is his second season, he only made three appearances in 2022 – with two of those in finals, showing just how highly he is rated by the Dockers.
In the epic elimination final comeback against the Bulldog, he missed a very simple shot from straight in front but showed great character shortly after by kicking truly as the siren sounded for half time – a goal which meant the Dockers went to that main break with all the momentum.
Jye Amiss of the Dockers. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
In 2023 Amiss has taken advantage of Matt Taberner’s back injury, thriving with the responsibility of being his team’s number one target with 19 goals in 10 games so far.
This has included four bags of three, illustrating his consistency and ability to hit the scoreboard with limited opportunities. One thing I do really like is his set shot kicking – it reminds me of Matt Suckling – and how reliable his process appears to be.
At this stage of his career he is not a big ball winner, so taking advantage of his opportunities is very important. Importantly, Amiss makes efforts to stay in the play when he’s not winning the ball and he is happy to lay tackles (he got Lever holding the ball with an excellent tackle on the weekend) and throw himself into marking contests to ensure no opponents can take easy grabs.
He seems a good teammate and has been a big part of the Dockers’ improving fortunes since their slow start to the season and with other rising stars like Luke Jackson, Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw, Hayden Young, Neil Erasmus and Matthew Johnson alongside him the future undoubtedly looks bright for the Dockers.
Chances of winning the Rising Star
Amiss is a special talent, but I don’t think his production is at the same level of some of this seasons other nominees.
If he maintains this level and does kick 40+ goals though (Jesse Hogan won this award with 45 goals in 2015 and that may be a reasonable precedent), it will certainly be difficult even for some of the media types who are blinded by 30+ possession games to not give him high marks in their voting.
Plays like
I think Richmond star Tom Lynch is a good comparison, though former Eagle Josh Kennedy also makes a bit of sense.
Ceiling
Amiss has good hands, kicks beautifully, is quick on the lead and kicks goals pretty much every time he takes the field – he’s a natural goal-kicker and this has become increasingly rare today where everyone is a midfielder.
If he can increase his productivity and add half a dozen touches a week to his tally then he’s going to both kick more himself as well as create more with his lovely kicking. He can be amongst the absolute top echelon of key forwards.
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