The young guns at every AFL club who can take the next step in 2021
Hope springs eternal at AFL clubs at the start of pre-season as young guns return to prove themselves. These are the likely breakout contenders from every team in 2021.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Even for an AFL cycle that never seems to end, players returning for pre-season six weeks after Richmond’s Grand Final success was a jarring proposition.
After the most turbulent year in football history, couldn’t we just down tools until 2021?
But hope springs eternal at AFL clubs, who will attempt to fast-track this week’s draftees as they join the two-to-four year players as they train until Christmas.
So which players can make the step jump from good to great, or from fringe player to centre stage using this training block as a starting point?
Which player, who is yet to hit four years of service, is the most intriguing prospect of each club’s list?
Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
ADELAIDE
SHANE MCADAM
All of Adelaide is keen to see what Fisher McAsey is capable of with another pre-season after THAT mark back with the flight as a No. 6 draft selection, but Shane McAdam’s back-end of the season showed finally his workrate might have married up with his talent.
He might have only finished with a dozen goals in 13 games but he was only goalless four times and hauled in 14 contested marks in his final seven games as a genuine leaping target who now seems far from a one-trick pony.
BRISBANE LIONS
KEIDEAN COLEMAN
For all the blue-blood draft picks that will keep the Lions in contention there was something that meant you couldn’t look away when Keidean Coleman had ball in hand.
The No. 37 draft pick in the 2019 national draft showed a handy sidestep and ability to find targets inside 50 with classy disposal.
He played only five games including the qualifying final but as much as Oscar McInerney will need to step up as the No. 1 ruck and all eyes will be Joe Daniher, this kid might be one to watch.
CARLTON
BRODIE KEMP
The Blues were not only prepared to wait a year for Brodie Kemp given his 2019 ACL tear, they traded up to secure him.
In the end Carlton ended up warehousing him for the entire 2020 season, so his first pre-season is one where fans will hope he can get the work in to show off his versatility as a big-bodied midfielder who also played forward and back in his NAB League career.
At 192cm and 88kg he has the frame to make an early impact.
Despite trade speculation Paddy Dow and Lochie O’Brien remained at Carlton and like Liam Stocker will need massive pre-seasons to break into an improving side.
Here is hoping Stocker’s break from footy with personal issues has allowed him time to prepare for a bumper summer.
COLLINGWOOD
WILL KELLY
The son of premiership defender and TLA boss Craig played just 67 minutes of AFL football in 2020 but it was enough to show he is made of the right stuff.
In his AFL debut in Round 6 against Hawthorn he kicked 1.1 from just five disposals and a contested mark but it franked Collingwood’s optimism about him as a 194cm marking forward of the future.
It’s a positional type they desperately need, so after two seasons effectively ruined by injury – the debut ended with a severe elbow injury – he can put together a summer that might make him an automatic starter for Round 1.
ESSENDON
SAM DRAPER
As a 194cm marking forward every Essendon fan hopes Harry Jones can have a bumper second pre-season after injury hobbled his debut year, but it’s impossible to go past Draper.
Rocking a mullet that would have made old-school coach Denis Pagan reach for the clippers, he quickly became a fan favourite with his raw-boned aggression and aerial abilities in eight highly impressive games.
It’s no exaggeration to say he is the kind of ruckman you can build a midfield around and with Tom Bellchambers retired, the world is his oyster.
Jye Caldwell is entering only his third pre-season and most Dons fans wouldn’t recognise him if he jumped up in front of them walking down Napier St, Essendon.
But he has the chance to build centre-square synergy over summer after being starved of centre-bounce opportunities at his old home of GWS.
FREMANTLE
HAYDEN YOUNG
Dockers fans only got a glimpse of the No. 7 draft selection, who showcased his raking left foot and intercept marking in his breakout game in Round 3 against Gold Coast.
Teammates say he’s one of the best kicks in the team already and his perfect balance of hard-won footy and workrate to get into space has him surely on the way to a 200-game career.
His season was over due to injury in Round 6, but the Dockers would be desperate to get him, Rising Star winner Caleb Serong and Liam Henry into the side in Round 1.
Serong fully deserve that 2020 title but Young would have pushed him all the way had his ankle not buckled beneath him.
GEELONG
JORDAN CLARK
Clark’s second-year blues came about not only through a July shoulder dislocation but also a Cats back six that was hard to break into.
That defensive unit took the Cats all the way to the Grand Final but the club knows it will have to spark its risk-averse ball movement after it ran aground in the second half of the loss to Richmond.
Clark seems to have it all – enough speed, poise with ball in hand, quality disposal – so there is no reason why he can’t find a permanent spot in this side.
Quinton Narkle couldn’t break into the team either and looked around so after 17 games in three seasons he will be setting himself to break out as a quality pressuring small forward.
GOLD COAST
JACK LUKOSIUS
Yes, we want to see if Ben King can be the next Tom Lynch.
Yes, we want to see whether Izak Rankine can keep the showboat brilliance but add a layer of consistency.
But can Gold Coast be good enough to actually turn Jack Lukosius’s sublime kicking into an advantage few other teams can replicate?
In 17 games last season the tall intercept defender would often try corridor kicks of such high degree of difficulty they would come asunder only because his teammates couldn’t capitalise, either through a dropped mark and lack of poise in a decisive moment.
If the Suns can grow in 2021 we will see King in all his glory and Lukosius as one of the best handful of defensive kicks in the competition.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
LACHIE ASH
In 12 games, the No. 4 overall draft pick showed glimpses of what will now be expected of him with Heath Shaw and Zac Williams out of the line-up.
He has dash, superb disposal and the kind of decision making that allows him to judge when to hit that almost impossible kick through the corridor or go down the line.
GWS won’t concede they are out of the window despite the departure of Jeremy Cameron, but after a season of stodgy ball movement Ash and Lachie Whitfield can combine to rejuvenate the club’s style of player.
Tom Green’s best was brutal – 30 touches, 21 contested possessions against Melbourne in Round 17 – and with Jye Caldwell and Jackson Hately also gone he has no excuse not to get some serious midfield minutes.
HAWTHORN
WILL DAY
Will Day’s 11 games from Round 6 onwards were good enough for him to finish fifth in the Rising Star award, but to be honest the Hawks need another three or four young kids of his calibre.
Jack Scrimshaw’s year was excellent but Mitchell Lewis played only eight games for five goals after 20 goals in 12 games the previous year.
Still, with an elite draft pick on Wednesday and Finn Maguinness making his debut in 2020 there are signs of life.
Day couldn’t have done more as an excellent ball user to poise and judgment in defence, sneaking into the last spot in the club’s top 10 in the best-and-fairest.
With no James Sicily for most of the season, they will need him and Scrimshaw more than ever.
MELBOURNE
LUKE JACKSON
No one quite knows what Luke Jackson is just yet.
Is he a key forward who can win mismatches given his pace and ground-ball ability?
Is he a ruckman like Brodie Grundy can mop up as a midfielder when the ball hits the ground?
Is he a jack of all trades who will go through his career playing a bit of everywhere?
What they know is the No. 3 draft pick from 2019 has that indefinable something that makes them special.
He played only six games, had only 52 possessions and only five contested marks but it was there in the quarter-long cameos and game sense in individual passages of play.
Now he needs to put it together because for all his potential, when you pick a player at No. 3 in the draft you can’t wait five years for them to fire.
NORTH MELBOURNE
TARRYN THOMAS
On Fox Footy during the trade period I asked David King which of the young Joeys he loves the best. He couldn’t go past Cam Zurhaar’s brand of aggressive forward play.
Still reckon Tarryn Thomas might be the pick of the litter.
Injury decimated his second season but he has it all as the kind of freak talent who will one day be capable of amassing 500 touches and 30 goals a year.
His debut season was scintillating – 240 touches and 16.15 – as a player equally comfortable as a half forward who can push up and win his own ball in the stoppage or be isolated as a contested-marking deep forward.
Now he needs to spend the summer getting Brent Harvey fit so he can do it for the next 12 years.
PORT ADELAIDE
MITCH GEORGIADES
We love Zak Butters’ sheer courage and clean hands, Xavier Duursma’s gut-running and audacious goal celebrations and can’t wait to see Connor Rozee go into the midfield in his third season.
Between them these three players have played 109 games as they enter their third pre-season.
What else is there to say about them other than more please.
If the Power are to win those multiple premierships Ken Hinkley speaks about it will be through depth of talent, which is where Mitch Georgiades comes in.
The No. 18 selection in the 2019 national draft has strut and swagger that belies a 191cm frame, breaking out with three goals against Melbourne and backing it up with three contested marks the following week.
If he and Todd Marshall can peak while Charlie Dixon is still in a rich vein of form, Ken Hinkley might just be right.
RICHMOND
NOAH BALTA
The Tigers could settle down Noah Balta as their fullback for the next decade and watch at he racks up All-Australian blazers with his blend of powerful intercept marking and lockdown defence.
Yet something in his blend of athleticism and contested marking makes you hope they release him into the ruck to see what he is capable of this season.
He isn’t so much a caged Tiger on the last line but with Ivan Soldo out with an ACL, Balta could use his massive tank to see what he is capable of as Toby Nankervis’ back-up.
Richmond even threw him forward in the Port Adelaide preliminary final at one stage, so they are prepared to test the limits of his game.
ST KILDA
JACK BYTEL
Consider the list of players 23 and under at St Kilda — Ben Long, Jade Gresham, Josh Battle, Ben Paton, Jack Higgins, Hunter Clark, Nick Coffield, Max King,
It’s some kind of impressive age demographic when you consider Dan Butler, Dougal Howard, Cal Wilkie and Jack Steele are yet to hit 25 (Steele hits that milestone on December 13).
But for all the headlines about Brad Crouch’s arrival, a kid who played only three games in his second season still has mighty wraps.
Jack Bytel was the No. 41 pick in the 2018 national draft, and while he might never be Hunter Clark or Max King, he is the kind of emerging prospect which will help generate the depth of talent to push for flags.
Tough in the clinches, he won five clearances in his 18 disposals on debut and while he only played three matches this must be his summer to make enough improvement to earmark a Round 1 role, as tough as this midfield will be to crack into.
SYDNEY
NICK BLAKEY
Sydney is attempting to rebuild by stealth, and introducing three top-20 talents including the No. 4 overall selection on Wednesday will fast-track that process.
They would have earmarked Nick Blakey and Tom McCartin as their twin towers for the next decade as they eke out another few years from Lance Franklin.
As it turns out McCartin might be a centre half back and Blakey might be a wingman or onballer, and at 195cm and with a raking left foot it’s going to be a heck of a lot of fun watching if “The Lizard” is capable of turning into that player.
Amid a quiet start to his second season Blakey was thrown into the fray and he responded with efforts like his 18-possession, three-clearance, two goal effort against GWS.
WEST COAST
BAILEY WILLIAMS
This is a mature battle-hardened squad, but with Nic Naitanui getting to veteran status and Tom Hickey finding a new home at Sydney, Bailey Williams has the chance to step up and grab serious game time.
Only 21 in April he debuted and played three games and while Oscar Allen can also play the ruck back-up Williams, the No. 35 selection of the 2018 national draft, will also get chances.
At 199cm and 95kg, he already has the frame to compete with the AFL’s big boys and needs to experience to be ready when Naitanui eventually retires.
WESTERN BULLDOGS
AARON NAUGHTON
Aaron Naughton is still a baby in football terms.
Injury kept him to only 12 games in what was a year where he didn’t reach the heights of his 32-goal breakout second season.
But if any other third-year key forward hauled in 20 contested marks in a season and kicked a bag of six against Melbourne we would be calling it a year of considerable progress.
He set the bar so high it was always going to be impossible to jump it.
Now after a long list of early injuries including knee concerns and a fractured cheekbone, the Dogs’ main concern will be keeping him fit and healthy over the summer to hit Round 1 at warp speed.
More Coverage
Originally published as The young guns at every AFL club who can take the next step in 2021
Shock scenario in Bailey Smith stalemate
Bailey Smith’s Western Bulldogs exit has set up a potentially rare scenario that could deliver a shock result as Geelong’s offer hits a stalemate.
The late draft pick that could deliver Stringer to Giants
Essendon is open to trading inconsistent star Jake Stringer to GWS as the 30-year-old considers a beefed-up offer from the Giants.