The Brisbane Lions have added their third father-son to their list in as many days, signing Darryl McDowell-White Jnr as a category B Rookie today.
McDowell-White Jnr, son of Lions triple premiership player Darryl White, joins Brisbane via the AFL Rookie Draft in a history-making week for the Club.
The former basketballer arrives at the Lions’ den alongside No.2 draft pick Will Ashcroft (son of Marcus) and fellow draftee Jaspa Fletcher (son of Adrian).
After spending a large part of 2022 training with the Club and playing in the Lions VFL side, McDowell-White Jnr said he already felt part of the squad.
Not bad for a first goal 🤩 https://t.co/Haiz2psPUU
— Brisbane Lions VFL (@lions_vfl) September 3, 2022
“Now that it is official, I am definitely relieved but also pretty excited and ready for the pre-season and season ahead,” the 25-year-old said.
“I have always loved being fit and getting amongst it, and I'm now looking forward to doing it every day in a group with such a great culture."
The athletic forward said being known as the son of a Lions triple premiership player had been the case his whole life, and therefore he'd learnt to embrace it, and was looking forward to joining the Lions at the same time as father-son duo Ashcroft and Fletcher.
“I think it feels natural because we all would have grown up around the Club together at some stage, now 20 or 25 years later we are all together,” he said.
“For us it is almost like strength in numbers, the fact that there are three of us whose dads have had their great careers and now we can come in and replicate it.
“I think if we came in one by one, then we would be trying to out-do our fathers, but the fact that we’re all in together, we can accomplish all of our goals as a collective unit.”
Lions General Football, Danny Daly, said the Club was thrilled by the addition of McDowell-White Jnr to its senior list.
“DJ is a very athletic player with plenty of natural talent, which is little surprise there are plenty of similarities between him and his father,” he said.
“We had him train with us for most of this year and he played a handful of VFL games where he showed what he is capable of.
“He is an exciting prospect for us, and we look forward to seeing how he benefits from yet another pre-season and playing with us full time.”