![Jackson Eckford and his mum Kim O'Meara celebrate after his first grade debut in which he scored a hat-trick and celebrated with a memorable backflip. Picture by Michael Hartshorn Jackson Eckford and his mum Kim O'Meara celebrate after his first grade debut in which he scored a hat-trick and celebrated with a memorable backflip. Picture by Michael Hartshorn](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33FVAk7YxZ786YcQSXi4WkS/3d4b0efa-4376-44fe-bd48-c3998fc03fd3.jpg/r708_224_3512_2365_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Soccer convert Jackson Eckford scored a hat-trick and topped it off with a backflip in a memorable first grade debut for the Maitland Pickers.
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Eckford earned man-of-the-match honours for his efforts on a wing in Maitland's 50-14 win against a game Northern Hawks.
The 20-year-old from Lochinvar was lured across to rugby league by Pickers coach Matt Lantry who had coached him in schoolboy's footy at St Mary's College Maitland.
Eckford was an upper-age teammate of Cessnock youngster Fletcher Sharpe, who is set to make his first grade debut with the Newcastle Knights on Sunday, but only played rugby league at school with soccer his main sport.
"There's no substitute for speed, you can't coach that and Jackson's got plenty of it," Lantry said.
"Even though soccer was his main sport, he did really well with the team at school and I was keen to get him across.
"He is learning all the time. I can see him developing into a long-term player probably playing at fullback.
"It's pretty amazing weekend for boys from that team with young Fletch making his Knights debut and Jackson scoring a hat-trick in his first grade debut with the Pickers."
Eckford said he made his debut as a teenager with the Weston Bears in the NPL, but had been talked into giving rugby league a go by Lantry two years ago.
"It's pretty amazing now to have played first grade in soccer and rugby league," said Eckford, surrounded by family and friends after the match.
"I thought I'd give league a go and it's great to finally get a debut.
"I never expected to make first grade this early and certainly didn't expect to even score a tray let alone a hat-trick.
"It's pretty amazing."
The backflip celebration after the third harked back to Eckford's days with the Bears.
"When I started with the Pickers at training they'd ask you to do a bit of a dance or sing a song. I went with the backflip," he said.
"When I scored the third try I just thought go for it."
Pickers centre Matt Soper-Lawler who delivered the pass to Eckford for his final try said after he scored he was yelling to him to do a backflip.
"It's pretty special to get a hat-trick on debut. I was yelling to him to do the backflip," he said.
Proud mum Kim O'Meara said she had seen the backflip quite a few times when he was playing soccer and the younger kids loved it.
"I am so proud of him."