Jace Bode

Personal information
Birth	14 September 1987(1987-09-14), Adelaide, South Australia
Recruited from	Sturt Football Club
Height and weight	186cm 84kg
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 19, 2007 (11 August), Melbourne vs. Western Bulldogs, at Telstra Dome
Team(s)	Melbourne (2006—2008) Games - 9 Goals - 3
¹ Statistics to end of Round 18, 2008 season
Career highlights

Jace Bode is an Australian former professional footballer who played for Melbourne FC in 2007 and 2008.

Bode grew up in Adelaide and attended Pulteney Grammar School, before changing to Pembroke for his final three years of high school, where he finished in 2005. He excelled at many sports at junior level apart from Aussie Rules, particularly cricket, athletics and basketball. As a fast bowler, he played at various representative levels until his focus turned to football. His background in athletics (particularly the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints) saw him perform very well at the AFL Draft Camp. He is a natural left-footer and played senior footy for Sturt in 2005 before being selected in the Under-18 All-Australian side, on the wing. He was taken at No. 9 in the 2005 NAB AFL Rookie Draft,^[1] and made his debut in Round 19 of the 2007 season.^[2]

Bode broke in to the Sandringham Zebras (Melbourne FC's VFL club) first-team towards the end of 2006, playing 5 games. He suffered from a serious back injury in the early parts of 2007 but regained full fitness and was elevated from the Rookie List before his debut against Western Bulldogs. Bode played in the last four matches of the 2007 season, kicking two goals in the final match of the season against Carlton. He was retained on the Melbourne list for 2008, and played in the Round 2 thrashing at the hands of the Bulldogs, and was dropped the following week. He did manage to break back in to the starting side for the round 11, Queen's Birthday clash against Collingwood, where he played in front of a crowd of 60,000. He was delisted by Melbourne at the end of the 2008 season. Bode came back to Adelaide where he was put on the Sturt list for the 2009 season.

[edit] External links

• Jace Bode profile on the Official AFL Website of the Melbourne Football Club
• Jace Bode's statistics from AFL Tables

[edit] References