Draft Intel: The under-the-radar prospects who have the attention of AFL clubs
If the meeting schedules of a number of under-the-radar draft prospects is anything to by, AFL clubs can clearly sniff a potential bargain. Get the latest intel here.
The countdown to the AFL Draft is on with less than a month until dreams will be realised.
Here is all the latest intel from across the country.
THE MOST IN-DEMAND PLAYERS IN THIS DRAFT
The compromised nature of this year’s draft means the most in-demand players will not necessarily be the first picked on draft night.
However, they do make interesting reading as clubs zero-in on some exciting players with a wider draft range.
A survey by this column of some of the top prospects during the national draft combine earlier this month found that some players had meetings booked with almost every club, while others who are tied to clubs through father-son or Academy programs had much quieter schedules.
Eastern Ranges defender Xavier Taylor has bolted into top-10 contention after a stellar finish to the season, named best afield in the Coates Talent League grand final, and he has been very popular among clubs, meeting with 16 across the draft combine weekend alone.
Central District key forward Aidan Schubert met with “most of the comp” as he firms as a top-15 pick, while there were only three clubs who didn’t meet with Oakleigh Chargers line-breaker Sam Grlj during the combine.
Eastern Ranges small forward Lachy Dovaston had meetings with 14 clubs, while Central District wingman Matt LeRay had 13 meetings.
Clubs clearly sniff a potential bargain in athletic Oakleigh Chargers midfielder Sam Allen, who met with 11 clubs during the combine despite suffering a season-ending ACL injury in late May.
Murray Bushrangers key forward Liam Hetherton has also been out of sight with back stress fracture issues this season, but he isn’t out of mind, speaking with 12 clubs at the combine and 17 across the year.
Many prospects hadn’t heard from Gold Coast or Brisbane — or both — given their highly rated academy talents.
Hetherton, West Australian first-round talent Jacob Farrow and Oakleigh Chargers ruckman Louis Emmett had spoken to every club except Gold Coast, while Wentworth product Sam Cumming and Geelong Falcons distributor Josh Lindsay had heard from all besides Brisbane.
Sandringham Dragons key forward Archie Ludowyke has chatted to every club except Gold Coast and Brisbane, having been out of action since a PCL injury during the national championships.
Geelong Falcons forward-midfielder Hugo Mikunda has flown under the radar this year but is highly-rated by AFL recruiters, with 15 clubs touching base with him.
Two brothers of guns in Cody Curtin (brother of Dan) and Hunter Holmes (brother of Max) have received contact from about half of the league, including their sibling’s clubs in Adelaide and Geelong respectively.
Interestingly, some of the top draft prospects including Willem Duursma and Cooper Duff-Tytler met with as few as six clubs during the combine weekend.
Carlton father-son prospect Harry Dean – another top-10 prospect – met with seven clubs, including the Blues.
Gold Coast Academy gun Dylan Patterson had to leave the draft combine a day early because of a commitment, but the damaging defender has also only met with a handful of clubs across the year given the assumption he will end up at the Suns.
Western Bulldogs father-son prospect Will Darcy and Essendon-tied Hussien El Achkar only had four meetings apiece during the combine, while Richmond father-son Louis Kellaway sat down with just two clubs.
However, Carlton NGA forward-midfielder Jack Ison and Collingwood NGA tall Zac McCarthy have both met with about 10 clubs across the year, with the same number getting in contact with Geelong NGA forward Jesse Mellor.
WHO DRAFT PROSPECTS WOULD PICK AT No. 1
Gippsland Power utility Willem Duursma is the favourite to be taken with the No. 1 pick in 2025 — and his fellow draft hopefuls agree.
This column asked 25 top draft prospects who they would take with the No. 1 pick, with 11 choosing Duursma.
Duursma has been strongly linked to West Coast with the No. 1 pick and will become the fourth sibling in his family to join the top level after Xavier (Essendon), Yasmin (Carlton) and Zane (North Melbourne).
Freakishly athletic ruck-forward Cooper Duff-Tytler received six nominations, while Gold Coast Academy halfback Dylan Patterson (three), Brisbane Academy midfielder Dan Annable (two) and Larke Medal winner Dyson Sharp also got some love.
The rogue vote came for Sandringham Dragons ball-magnet Jack Dalton, who put his name up in lights at the end of the season after recovering from a freak gym accident.
McGUANE ATTRACTING RIVAL INTEREST
Western Jets midfielder Tom McGuane has received some renewed hope ahead of the draft, with multiple clubs reaching out since he was advised by Collingwood earlier this month that they would not nominate him as a father-son for the national draft.
McGuane’s football IQ and running power are two key strengths, with some of his GPS data while playing for the Jets this year being “off the charts”.
He backed that up by running an impressive time of 6 min 20 sec in the 2km time trial at the Victorian state draft combine earlier this month, having clocked a 2.93 sec time in the 20m sprint earlier that day.
Collingwood left the door open to potentially select McGuane as a rookie if he got through the national draft, with Magpies list boss Justin Leppitsch saying last week that the club had wanted to provide him with some early clarity around their plans.
“We haven’t even spoken to our other academy (and) father-son boys,” Leppitsch said.
“But just given the sensitivities, given his father’s a champion of our club, we wanted to hit it up as soon as we knew to give the family the respect and Tom, I guess, the readiness for it.”
Tom’s father, Mick, won two Copeland Trophy’s during a 152-game career at Collingwood before finishing his career by playing one season for Carlton in 1997.
BIG RAPS ON OUT-OF-SIGHT SOUTH AUSTRALIAN
South Australian captain Dyson Sharp has given Jevan Phillipou a glowing endorsement ahead of the national draft, after the talented midfielder-forward battled an injury-interrupted year.
The brother of St Kilda young gun Mattaes, Phillipou broke his arm a week before the under-18 national championships which meant he did not feature on the national stage in the title-winning South Australian side.
However, Phillipou did show strong form in the SANFL under-18s as a damaging forward-half player and also had a taste of senior football with six games for Woodville-West Torrens.
“He’s definitely a competitor,” Sharp said of Phillipou.
“You know what you’re going to get from Jev. He’s going to go in and just be a hard nut. He’s really good at running, really great overhead, can kick on both feet. So he’s someone that you definitely want on your side because you just know what you’re going to get out of him at the end of the day and that’s just unconditional effort, which is exactly what you want from your players.
“Even this year, he didn’t play (nationals) but he was always at our trainings, rocked up to our games in SA. So it was just amazing to have him around the group, passing on his strength and stuff to the younger guys as well.”
BIZARRE REASON JORDAN DAWSON CLONE WILL PLAY ANYWHERE
Most AFL draft prospects will say they are happy to play anywhere, but West Australian prospect Jacob Farrow genuinely means it.
A damaging left-footer who has been likened to Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson, Farrow rocketed up draft boards after a bumper national carnival, but curiously he has never supported an AFL team.
However, the first-round talent certainly knows ball.
Farrow is an absolute footy nut with all 18 AFL guernseys hanging up in his wardrobe.
He watches around six AFL games each weekend and his hidden talent is knowing the numbers and boots of pretty much every AFL player.
Asked who wears No. 35 for Hawthorn, Farrow knew instantly it was second-year forward Calsher Dear.
“I don’t actually go for a team,” Farrow said with a smile.
“I got a jersey for each of the 18 clubs. Just love watching a good game of footy.
“I’ve got a few numbers. I had the six on the back of the Bulldogs one when Bailey Smith was there. Nat Fyfe number seven on the back of the Freo one, but other ones are just plain jerseys.
“I haven’t been too one team focused, like watching a game of footy I don’t really get too emotional if a team loses or whatever because I don’t have any hard feelings.”
As a consequence, AFL clubs can be assured that the 188 centimetre halfback/midfielder is in for the long haul.
“If there was an opportunity to be grabbed at the draft, then any team would be amazing,” Farrow said.
Farrow’s dedication also extends to his own footy.
Told by his talent manager that he needed to work on his running over the off-season, the West Perth product took matters into his own hands.
“I went away and got a sprint coach, so I did a lot of sprint stuff over the off-season, pre-season, and that gave me a lot of confidence to take the game on more and drive my legs,” Farrow said.
“So that’s held me in good stead and set me up for a really good year.”
That intervention saw the U18 All-Australian shine for Western Australia at the national championships and at colts and then league level with West Perth, where he has been mentored by former West Coast defender Josh Rotham.
“He’s taken me under his wing and obviously with his experience at AFL level, and he knows what I’m going through right now, the process, and he’s just there I can lean on,” Farrow said.
Farrow is eyeing a similar progression to the player he has been compared to in Dawson.
Dawson began his career at Sydney in defence before becoming a gamebreaking midfielder at Adelaide.
“I think to start my career I would be at that halfback and then transition into a midfielder over time,” Farrow said.
“Jordan Dawson is a really good kick, takes a good mark in the air, and I feel I’ve got those traits as well. So to become a midfielder in the future would be something I’d be interested in.”
TIGERS’ TOUGH CALL ON KELLAWAY
Richmond has not committed to matching a bid on father-son prospect Louis Kellaway in next month’s national draft, in part because of a lack of suitable selections at its disposal and uncertainty around where a bid could come.
The Tigers hold picks 3, 4, 38 and 81 entering the draft.
That second-round selection at pick 38 is expected to come in a few spots to around pick 34 after a host of selections are used by rivals to match earlier bids.
Richmond advised the Kellaway camp last month that Louis would have to be at the top of its draft board for them to match a bid that came before their second-round pick, but there is every chance there could be other players still available at that point who the Tigers rate higher.
However, it is understood that Richmond remains open to selecting Kellaway later in the draft, with the club having done a significant amount of work with the South Australian midfielder over recent years.
Kellaway is the son of 180-game Richmond midfielder Duncan, while he also has two uncles who pulled on the yellow and black in Andrew Kellaway and Ben Holland.
A big improver this year, the 180cm prospect is a one-touch player who uses the ball well by hand and foot, has high footy IQ and has developed a strong defensive pressure game.
THE TALL SMOKEY WITH PLENTY OF UPSIDE
An athletic tall with a “lot of upside” is shaping as a draft smokey after lighting up the Victorian state draft combine.
Eastern Ranges ruckman Marcus Krasnadamskis was not on a Coates Talent League list mid-season after stepping away from football last year to focus on a promising basketball career.
Krasnadamskis spent the early part of this year playing under-19s for Berwick in the Eastern Football League, before strong form saw him called up to the Ranges.
The 202cm tall played 13 games after making a round 9 debut, averaging 11.5 disposals and 14 hit-outs on his way to a premiership with the Ranges.
Krasnadamskis went on to record top-five results in multiple tests at the state draft combine, ranking fourth nationally in the vertical jump (74cm), fourth in the running vertical jump (88cm) and second in the 20m sprint (2.887sec).
While he is seen as a more of a long-term project player – like a lot of young talls – Krasnadamskis has shown enough to suggest he has potential at the top level.
“He follows up really well, he’s got great mobility for a big guy and I think that’s his basketball skill set in there too,” Ranges coach Lauren Morecroft said.
“He’s got a lot of upside to go.”
Originally published as Draft Intel: The under-the-radar prospects who have the attention of AFL clubs
The Rat, Clarko, Dew: Hawks’ Centrals pipeline strikes again
