AFL Draft 2021: Follow the latest news and moves
A prospect hailing from country Victoria has been kept on the sidelines by Covid and injury. But he could prove to be a bargain on draft night.
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Has blistering speed, plenty of upside and will travel.
That is the job ad to AFL clubs for Albury flyer Campbell Chesser, who gave up athletics to concentrate on football and appears set to be snapped up in this month’s national draft.
The 186cm rebounding defender has played only five games in two years due to Covid disruptions and a knee issue this season.
But the 18-year-old Melbourne Grammar boarder hopes he’s shown he deserves a spot at an AFL club.
“It’s been quite disjointed and hard to find some form and consistency in my game, but last year especially everyone was in the same boat and this year it was just unfortunate with my knee,” he said.
“But hopefully I’ve done enough to get on a list.”
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If any club needs a timely speed injection, Chesser is their man.
He’s competed at national level for athletics five times, specialising in the 100m and 200m.
His personal-best time for the 100m is a scintillating 11.29, although he has no regrets in going down the football path.
“Footy was always the first love and I was involved locally with the Wodonga Bulldogs and then I kind of picked up athletics just through school, and I ended up going to a few national campaigns,” he said.
“At the same time I was playing under-12 and under-15 Vic schoolboys.
“Then I moved down to Melbourne at the stage where I was trying to balance the two of them, but I then made the decision to pursue football and transfer the athletic profile from sprinting into football.”
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Chesser had knee surgery to fix his right meniscus after an injury playing for Sandringham in Round 2 of the NAB League this year, but he’s now back to full fitness.
In Round 1, the Vic Country representative logged 23 disposals at 82.6 per cent efficiency, with five inside-50s and 110 Champion Data ranking points.
After boarding away from home the past four years, the thought of being selected by a club on the other side of the country holds little fear for Chesser.
“I think I’m in a different boat to most as I’ve already lived away from home for four years, and also there’s obviously no AFL team in Albury,” he said.
“I am going to move away from home regardless if I do get on a list, and I guess that’s just something I’ve accepted now.
“I love Melbourne and I’d like to stay here, but I’d definitely be open to going interstate as well as I think I’d be able to adapt pretty quickly.”
Will Giants trade pick 2?
— Dan Batten and Jordan Pinto
Greater Western Sydney recruiting boss Adrian Caruso says the Giants are likely to reject rival offers for its coveted pick two as clubs clamour to move up the board.
Caruso confirmed the club has had advances from rival clubs for the prized selection but, while there is still plenty to play out, said they have not been appealing enough to consider a trade.
He said offers would need to be “compelling” for them to give up the pick tied to Collingwood, which the Giants secured in a live trade on draft night last year.
The Giants are yet to make a call on whether it will place bids on father-son prodigies Nick Daicos and Sam Darcy, tied to Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs respectively, with Caruso saying the decision may be left until the week of the AFL Draft later this month.
Caruso told the Herald Sun Footy Podcast the club has four top-line players in its sights for the second pick of the draft.
News Corp understands this draft quartet is game-breaking midfielder Finn Callaghan, athletic ruckman Mac Andrew, dynamic forward-midfielder Josh Rachele and intercept defender Josh Gibcus.
“There definitely have been clubs behind us that have asked the question,” Caruso said.
“Even though those clubs are keen to get up (the order), those clubs don’t seem like they are throwing up anything that is really taking our fancy.
“It is also hard to get your head around trading a pick that is in such a good spot. It would want to be a pretty compelling offer.
“While there are clubs that are interested sitting behind us, it is good for us to have flexibility and to be in a position where we’ve got options.
“The most likely scenario is probably that we take the pick… but it is hard to get a read on anything until closer to the date when we’ve finalised our order and what our strategy is.”
Caruso said the Giants’ priority will be working out their draft order before contemplating whether to bid on Daicos and Darcy, who are expected to be matched by Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs at any stage of the draft,
“That will probably play out the week of the draft, I can’t imagine us making a decision before we know what our plans are with our picks,” he said.
“Obviously, Darcy and Daicos are great players and they are going to be great players for the clubs that they go to, but because they’re ultimately not going to end up with us.
“We feel like we want to nail our picks first, and that is pick two and 13.
“Ultimately we might bid, but we might not bid. It is just a really hard one to make a call on at the moment before having done all the work on the boys in the frame for us.
Asked about whether the club will draft on needs, Caruso pointed to players who have left the Giants in recent years due to a lack of opportunity, stressing the importance of drafting players who will fill a spot in their best 22.
Former Giants midfielders Jackson Hately and Jye Caldwell, both taken inside as first-round selections in the 2018 draft, left the club last year after being stuck behind the queue in a talent-rich GWS midfield group.
“Our rule has always been that we don’t believe in continually drafting good players if they don’t fit into our best 22,” Caruso said.
“We’ve had some players leave who couldn’t get in, and we don’t want that to happen again if we were to draft someone in an area of the ground that we are well stocked in and they don’t get in, and they leave for opportunity in two-three years.
“But we also want to make sure that we are bringing in players that we believe are capable, and we are not reaching out for a need just for the sake of addressing a spot on your depth chart.”
Cannons gun shooting up draft boards
— Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Draft hopeful Zac Taylor has already crossed off one thing on his footy to-do list.
The midfield prospect had played at almost every level for local side Oak Park except seniors.
With the NAB League on hiatus earlier this year, Taylor took the chance to rectify that.
“It was a really good privilege to play for the seniors at a club where you have been playing at since juniors,” Taylor said.
“Getting that senior role was a huge honour and getting to play with those older blokes you have looked up to since you were a junior was good.”
He was going to play alongside his two brothers in the Essendon District Football League division two side, but one hurt his shoulder the week before they were all set to feature.
The other then broke his collarbone in Taylor’s first game with him.
But while the achievement didn’t quite go to plan, the experience and then a four-week training block with Essendon’s VFL side ended up setting up Taylor for a fine year.
MORE: TOP 30 VICTORIAN DRAFT PROSPECTS
In his four games while playing for the Kangaroos, Taylor kicked 10 goals while running through the midfield.
“I’m pretty light-framed (at 180cm) so it was hard initially against the bigger bodies,” Taylor said.
“And they were more experienced, but it was still a good experience.”
He then got a late call-up by the Bombers second-tier side to play against Frankston, a game in which he ended up with 10 disposals and four marks.
“It was really good getting that quality training in with Essendon’s VFL side ... I think that helped my development heaps,” he said.
“I was pretty happy with that one, getting the late call-up on the Friday and playing on the Saturday was pretty good.”
With that experience under his belt, when Taylor resumed NAB League duties with the Calder Cannons he tore games apart.
Champion Data has his average for the last three matches of the Cannons’ campaign at 34.3 disposals.
In his final game against the Murray Bushrangers Taylor had 37 disposals, 22 contested possessions and 11 clearances.
“I guess it was just coming up against the more experienced guys and bigger bodies just gave me the confidence when I went back against people my own age,” he said.
“It just boosted the confidence heaps and we haven’t played too much footy in the last two years, so to get those games in was a huge help for me and I just felt really comfortable.”
Despite missing two games he won the Cannons’ Robert Hyde Medal as the team’s best-and-fairest and climbed up draft boards.
He is rated as one of the best kicks in the draft pool, while his 1.6 goal assists per match in the NAB League was rated as elite.
“I think my skills by foot are one of the highlights of my game, as well as my footy smarts. I just grew up with them, which was nice,” he said.
That suggests he will start his AFL career as a small forward, but Taylor’s footy idol is Nat Fyfe, while Zach Merrett is one midfield star he models his game on.
Taylor has spoken with 15 clubs ahead of this month’s draft.
After making his senior debut for Oak Park, he will all but certainly tick another item off on his footy to-do list come draft time.
ROOS COMMIT TO DRAFTING SON OF LEGEND
— Jay Clark
Glenn Archer’s son, Jackson, will be drafted by North Melbourne under the league’s father-son rules.
The Kangaroos have lodged paperwork that will see the courageous backman follow in his famous father’s footsteps to Arden St in next month’s draft.
Glenn Archer, who played 311 games including the 1996 and 99 premierships, is considered one of the Kangaroos’ greatest players and most inspirational figures.
His son, who is also a medium-sized defender, has also forged a reputation for his “hard-nosed style of play”, North said in a statement.
Jackson Archer, who played his junior football at Park Orchards Sharks before coming through the Northern Knights NAB League program, represented North’s VFL side against Southport in 2021.
North Melbourne GM Football Brady Rawlings said the club had been impressed by Archer’s development.
“We’ve naturally kept a close eye on Jackson and he’s worked hard to earn this opportunity,” Rawlings said.
“When you see him play you know straight away whose son he is. He’s aggressive and highly competitive – it’s a good foundation to build on in today’s footy.”
North Melbourne holds selections 1, 20, 42, 47, 72 and 77 at next month’s draft.
Rivals could poach Saints’ draft gun
— Jon Ralph
St Kilda’s Next Generation Academy midfielder Mitch Owens has surged up the draft order to set up a nerve-racking draft night for the Saints, who could lose him to a rival side.
Sandringham Dragons midfielder Owens is available to St Kilda as an NGA prospect only if he falls outside of the protected top 20 selections in the national draft.
But rivals are considering taking him in the late teens given his emerging midfield game because they believe he has a huge upside curtailed by two NAB League seasons impacted by Covid.
As a 191cm midfielder who was just exploding in the back half of the season before the NAB league was shut down, he would perfectly complement the Saints midfield.
St Kilda has picks 9, 62, 66, 67 and 85, so matching a bid for him in the early 20s would be a steal given the Saints could use those late picks to compile the required draft points.
The Saints have made it their focus to restock their side with early draft selections this year and have a second NGA player who is a likely top-40 pick in former basketballer Marcus Windhager.
But the Saints would complete a brilliant draft haul if they could take a player with pick 9, select Owens in the 20s then also use a later draft pick for Windhager.
Windhager is an exciting 183cm midfielder who is coming off a junior knee reconstruction and now has a back injury that will keep him out for the foreseeable future.
Owens is linked to the Saints as a Next Generation Academy player because his mother is Japanese, with the young midfielder christened as Mitchito but generally going by the first name Mitch.
One rival recruiter with a pick in the teens said on Tuesday clubs were considering Owens as a possible pick in the late teens given he was showing huge signs of improvement just as the NAB season was shut down.
Sandringham talent manager Mark Wheeler said Covid had given Owens the time to erase his weaknesses.
“He was in our program as a 16-year-old and was a bit of a tease. He would play for a quarter and people would go, ‘Wow’ and then for the next three quarters you wouldn’t see him,” he said.
“He always had the talent but not the work rate and Covid allowed him to train with Jacob Edwards and his older brother Kai, who is at Frankston, and he also had a 15cm growth spurt. He ends up as a 191cm midfielder who goes from 7-15 possessions to 15-25. He also spent a bit of time in the gym and got really strong.
“He is now a genuine midfielder who can go both ways. His hands above his head are unbelievable and he is brave. He might even be silly brave. He gets crunched but he gets up every time. We have heard rumours he is in those picks before 20, but it just depends if recruiters want to play nice or if they don’t want to play nice.”
Recruiters believe St Kilda’s other two NGA picks are rookie selections at best in Jack Peris, the son of Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris, and Angus McLennan, who is recovering from AC joint surgery.
Meanwhile, the league will reportedly revert back to the under-16 and under-18 age groups for its talent pathway competitions such as the NAB league next season.
The AFL changed it to an under-17s and under-19s format for this season, but will now move back to the more traditional model.
The changes will affect both girls and boys programs however players who miss out being draft in their top-age year could still feature in the national championships and NAB league as an over-age player.
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Originally published as AFL Draft 2021: Follow the latest news and moves
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