For Jackson Ross, it was a case of "new balls, please."

From the age of four until he was 16, Ross' No. 1 sport, was tennis. He pinch-hit playing footy in under 10s, 11s and 12s, but it was with the racquet, not the Sherrin, that Ross spent most of his sporting youth.

Ex-tennis prodigy Jackson Ross was attracted to the team aspects of footy Credit:Eddie Jim

How good was he? "I was close to top 10 in the country for my age," Ross explains.

"I went over to Europe for a month or so to see what it was like over there so that was pretty cool.