RICHMOND forward Jack Higgins has always proved the doubters wrong.
The 177cm forward won just about every award possible as he rose through the junior ranks … but the sceptics remained.
"A lot of people always said, 'Oh, you're too small to make it, you've got to be over a certain height'," Higgins said on The Bright Side.
"I was like, jeez, maybe I won't get picked up."
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The young Tiger was quick to find his feet at AFL level, but his whole life was turned around in the middle of 2019 when an abnormality from birth was discovered that saw certain blood vessels in his head prone to bleeding.
"My world was up here and next thing I was faceplanted on the ground," Higgins said.
"I played against Werribee (in the VFL) and I remember driving home and I remember feeling so sick and wanting to vomit.
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"No one thought it was a head injury, I didn't get a knock on the head or anything.
"I finally got a brain scan and I remember sitting in the scanning room and waking up and someone came in and said, 'We've got to rush you straight to hospital'.
Higgins underwent surgery in September, 2019, right around the time his teammates took to the MCG to win a second flag in the space of three years.
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"Even though the doctor said I probably wouldn't play again, I always knew I would," Higgins said.
"I just imagined myself playing at the MCG again."
"That was my first thing to go back to - I'm going to play again, I'm going to prove this guy wrong, I'm going to prove everyone wrong."
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Higgins trained as hard as he could when the game was paused momentarily during the COVID-19 enforced break and forced his way back into Richmond's side in round two this year.
After everything that's happened, the gun Tiger gets a daily reminder of what an incredible recovery he's made.
"From Punt Road Oval where I run around, you can see the Epworth Hospital and that's what I use every time I'm struggling at training, I just think to myself, there's other people in worse positions than me and I was once a patient there and I've come so far."