Who is Jay Schulz? According to AFL Kid Zone, he's a 20-year-old Aries who likes pineapple, ham and salami on his pizza, has nightmares of being chased by wolves, and loves to surf!

He is the 2004 Round 6 winner of the Mark of the Year competition according to Droppunt.com and his mark made the opening play on the 2004 Season Highlights film put out by the Richmond Football Club.

AFL.com.au states that "Richmond's Jay Schulz is the round 14 nominee for the National's AFL Rising Star Award. The 19 year old earned rave reviews...", while RealFooty.com.au says, "Just starting his career is 19-year-old Schulz, who, in booting six goals against the team he barracked for as a youngster, staked the best claim this season of any Richmond player looking to nail down a key forward position and along the way picked up the national rising star nomination."

And finally, Sports Australia.com states, "For Richmond, young nineteen-year-old gun Jay Schulz – in only his second season – kicked a memorable six goals in a display that adequately filled the large forward line void left in the wake of Matthew Richardson’s absence due to injury."

Those are the reasons I've chosen Jay Schulz as the player I want to follow in-depth all season long! Each week you'll find updates on how his season is progressing. Living in the US, my information is limited so please feel free to send me your thoughts on Schulz and I'll post them here with proper credit to you, of course! You can start with Chris Greenway's review here if you'd like. That said, let's get started...!

Round 1, Wizard Cup
Richmond 5.9.9.108 - Collingwood 3.12.16.115
Something we're always up against in sport is the possibility of injury and that's exactly what we're facing right here, right now, first game of the season. As I write, the extent of Jay Schulz's injury is unknown, but reports have it ranging from a broken ankle to a sore foot. I wasn't able to view the game in the US so I'm not sure how the injury occurred, but I did read a newspaper report that said that Jay was in the back pocket, slipped, and was "body-slammed" by Anthony Rocca. Pretty rough afternoon for Jay Schulz.

Let's hope for a speedy recovery for Jay in the coming days and weeks.

UPDATE... Looks like Schulz is going to be out for a while. The injury was indeed a serious one, as is reported by the Herald Sun:

Schulz out for 12 with fracture
20 February 2005
Sunday Herald Sun
By SCOT PALMER

RICHMOND'S big man stocks have slumped with the loss of Jay Schulz for up to 12 weeks with a broken ankle.

Schulz was taken by Tiger doctor Greg Hickey to Epworth hospital during the second quarter of the match against Collingwood after the defender landed awkwardly from a mark.

X-rays revealed a break inside the ankle, which will require surgery and a pin to be inserted.

Schulz will enter hospital tomorrow and, according to Richmond football manager Paul Armstrong, will be sidelined for between 10 and 12 weeks.

Since he'll be sidelined for a good part of the season, I'll choose another player to follow this year in addition to Schulz, but since I started with him, I'd still like to continue with him. As his condition is updated, I'll update this site. All the best to Jay Schulz for a full recovery.