Chris Judd - Early Life

Early Life

Chris Judd was born in Melbourne to Andrew Judd and Lisa Engel. Raised in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs, where he played for the East Sandringham Junior Football Club before he attended Caulfield Grammar School. Judd was an all round sportsman and junior track and field star and solid cricket player. At Caulfield Grammar, he began to focus on Australian rules football and later captained the school's First team. Judd attained an ENTER score of 96.20 on his Victorian Certificate of Education.

Judd was a graduate of the 2000 AIS/AFL Academy and participated in the 2000 AFL National Under 18 Championships, although due to his young age at 17, he was too young to be drafted by an AFL club. He played TAC Cup football with the Sandringham Dragons through to 2001.

At the 2001 AFL National Under 18 Championships, Judd was named captain of the Vic Metro team, despite chronic shoulder problems. Although he missed the 2001 AFL Draft Camp, his performances at the state championships made him an obvious standout to recruiters and was tipped to be picked high in the 2001 AFL Draft. Judd was taken by West Coast with its priority draft pick (No. 3 overall) in what was later to be called the "super draft" due to the standout quality of the players to have developed from that draft year.