Jason Blake (footballer)

Australian rules footballer

Jason Blake (born 15 March 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). An "undersized tall defender and occasional ruckman",

Blake was recruited as the number 24 draft pick in the 1999 AFL Draft from the Prahran Football Club. During the Under 18 National Championships he had been named All Australian along with Ben Johnson, Rhyce Shaw, Darren Glass, Joel Corey and Jonathan Brown. During the series he managed to shut down Matthew Pavlich in the first game, and later did the same to Brown. and went on to play 13 games in his first year with the Saints.

Blake played in St Kilda's 2004 Wizard Home Loans Cup winning side St Kilda's second pre season cup win. Blake is a versatile footballer, having spent much of the period between 2003 and 2006 as a ruckman for St Kilda, but has also been able to play forward, back and as a tagger in the midfield. Blake capped off an improved 2007 season by finishing ninth in the club's Trevor Barker Award for the best and fairest player.

Blake played his 100th match for the Saints in round 9 of 2007 against Fremantle at Subiaco.

Blake played in 22 of 22 matches in the 2009 home and away rounds in which St Kilda qualified in first position for the finals, winning the club's third minor premiership. St Kilda qualified for the 2009 AFL Grand Final after qualifying and preliminary finals wins. Blake played in the 2009 AFL Grand Final in which St Kilda were defeated by 12 points.

Blake played 26 games in 2010, including four finals matches, and finished in the top 10 of St Kilda's best and fairest, the Trevor Barker Award, for the fourth year in succession. As of the end of the 2011 season, Blake had played in 15 AFL finals matches, including three grand finals. In the 2007 through 2010 seasons, he played 96 out of 98 games. This easily surpassed the old record of 167 games set by Ross Henshaw.

Blake played his 200th game in the first round match against Port Adelaide. In the 2012 Brownlow Medal count, Blake received his first ever votes in his 210th game (194th home and away game) of AFL football in the Round 11 game against the Gold Coast Suns. The votes were met with large applause from his St Kilda teammates present at the count.

During 2008, Blake studied a double degree in Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Construction Management) and a Bachelor of Business (Finance Specialisation) at RMIT University, and worked eight hours a week at Thinc Projects, construction, management and consulting firm, on top of his footballing duties with St Kilda. For his efforts, Blake was awarded the AFL Players Association's Education and Training Excellence Award.