Player Profile: Jai Serong

For a town of 6,526 people, the tiny Gippsland tourist centre of Inverloch has a famous history.

Located 145km south-east of Melbourne, it is known for the discovery of Australia’s first dinosaur bone in 1903, renowned for its swimming, kitesurfing, windsurfing and fishing, and was the original family home of Mr Football, Ted Whitten, who was ‘Mr Inverloch’ 1952.

It also counts among its famous products Angus Young, co-founder of rock band AC DC, news reading great Jennifer Keyte, Nobel Prize-winning veterinarian Peter Docherty, renowned legal eagle Julian Burnside, famous Australian poet Les Murray, Andrew Myer the grandson of Sydney Myer, founder of Myer department stores, and Australian cricketer John Watts.

And Jai Serong.

The latest addition to the Swans playing ranks, traded to Sydney from Hawthorn this week, grew up on the family dairy farm at Inverloch before moving an hour down the road to Warragul.

In football terms he has long been the younger brother of three-time Fremantle best and fairest winner Caleb Serong, but after four years and 10 AFL games at Hawthorn he is primed to forge his own football identity in Sydney.

An athletic 22-year-old 192cm defender who has also played at VFL level on the wing, he comes with a glowing recommendation from ex-Hawthorn backline teammate Jack Frost.

Speaking on AFL Trade Radio this week, Frost, a 185-game veteran with GWS, Melbourne and Hawthorn, said Serong had all the attributes to be “a very good player”.

Having spent the 2025 VFL season with Serong in the Box Hill defence, Frost said “everyone at Hawthorn knew he (Serong) had the talent” but his path to a regular senior game with the Hawks was blocked by Tom Barrass and Josh Battle.

“He (Serong) was way too good for the VFL … he made opposition players look borderline stupid at times. His craft is amazing, his temperament is great, and although everyone could sense his frustration you never saw (it come) out. He was great. He just needs a new club.”

Two years younger than his three-time All-Australian brother, Serong is a product of Geelong Grammar and the Gippsland Power, the former nursery of new teammate Tom Papley and 2005 premiership Swans Luke Ablett and Sean Dempster.

He was originally drafted by Hawthorn with pick #53 in the 2021 National Draft in which Sydney took Matt Roberts at #34 and Corey Warner at #40.

He debuted in Round 21, 2022 against Gold Coast in Launceston, played Rounds 21, 22 and 23 in 2022, and Rounds 22 and 23 in 2023, and after turning out in Rounds 6, 7, 9 and 10 in 2024 he played his last AFL game in the 2024 semi-final against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

He has won the Col Austen Trophy as the Box Hill club champion in 2024-25, and this year was named in the VFL Team of the Year after averaging 21.4 possessions and 7.3 marks.

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