BIO
Born 3 April 1976, Jarrod Cotton grew up at Para Hills and played junior football with North Adelaide. Zoned to Central District he later played for the Bulldogs.
A talented junior sportsman, Jarrod Cotton was a very good cricketer and soccer player, and represented the State in the 1993 Teal Cup.
Cotton made his league debut for Central District in 1994 and played 77 games over the next five seasons. In 1996 and 1997 he played in losing grand finals for Central District. He played State football against Western Australia in 1996.
Cotton was picked up by Port Adelaide Power as a zone selection in 1997 and made four appearances in the club's inaugural season. However, after a serious knee injury, he was delisted at the end of the 1998 season without adding to his AFL games total.
The clever mid-fielder and dangerous forward then joined Norwood for the 1999 season and played 22 games. Unfortunately he played in another grand final loss in his first season at The Parade.
In 2000 Cotton played 17 games and was third in the best and fairest award. The following season he made 20 appearances and reached the 50 game milestone for the Redlegs.
In 2002 he was the club's leading goalkicker with 42 majors (16 games).
In 2003 Cotton transferred to South Adelaide (9 games) and then had a year with Mt. Gravatt in the Queensland Australian Football League.
After retiring as a player, Cotton had several coaching appointments. He took over as caretaker coach of Norwood for the final seven rounds of 2009 after Trevor Hill's resignation. From 2008 to 2011 he was Norwood's league assistant coach and in 2012 coached the Norwood Reserves to a grand final.
Cotton was appointed senior coach at Norwood from 2017 to 2020 with 2018 his most successful season, when the team reached the Grand Final .
Other roles have included two years as a development coach at the Adelaide Crows, Director of coaching at Norwood, midfield coach of the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Magpies SANFL teams, and SANFL State team assistant coach.
R Cialini Oct 2021