The deeper you dig, the more draft hopeful Hunter Holmes appears to be a clone of his older brother Max in his draft year.

As the offspring of two-time Olympic sprinter Lee Naylor, who doubled as their athletics coach growing up, it is no surprise both are blessed with speed.

Geelong star Max was crowned as under-18 national champion in the 400 metre hurdles in his last competitive race and recorded a blistering 2.801-second 20 metre sprint at the 2020 draft combine.

Oakleigh Chargers prospect Hunter was just 0.094 slower in his 20m sprint at the draft combine a month ago as he clocked a 2.895-second time, having competed at national level in athletics when he was younger.

Academically, the Holmes brothers recorded impressive ATAR scores at Melbourne Grammar – Max just edging out Hunter – and are studying the exact same course, commerce at Melbourne University.

Physically, Hunter is a spitting image of Max in 2020, and they even look the same on-field.

“He was on the AFL Instagram a couple of weeks ago and I had a couple of people send it to me because they thought it was 18 year old footage of me,” Max told this masthead with a smile.

“Kids I went to school with, they thought it was very similar. So he does play a lot the same.

“So he would’ve been 14 when I was playing on the wing for Geelong, and he was running AFL patterns at school footy – it didn’t make much sense.”

Their resemblance on-field is uncanny to their mother.

“I watch Hunter play and think, ‘My gosh, that was just Max five years ago’,” Lee said.

AFL clubs have also commented on their likeness.

“They see kind of similarities in us, so it definitely helps in that way that they can see my potential,’ Hunter said.

“But I don’t know, I think most clubs do see me as an individual, not part of Max, but it definitely helps.

“The speed and athleticism, run and carry, which he does so well, I try to kind of model myself off that. That metres gained player, I’m trying to become more inside-outside as well, like he does.”

Then there is the testosterone trend shared by the Holmes brothers, which explains Max’s exponential growth and Hunter’s scope.

“The Holmes family seem to develop late – that’s okay if there’s a spectrum of development, testosterone kicks in when testosterone kicks in!” Lee said.

Max agrees, likening his younger brother to a giraffe.

“We hit puberty late, the Holmes – I hit puberty late, he hit puberty late,” Max chuckled.

“So I think he will stop being a giraffe and I think he’s got a lot of upside.”

Their limited exposure in the elite talent pathway is another marked similarity.

Max was continually overlooked for selection in his bottom-age year in 2019 at the Sandringham Dragons, playing just one Coates Talent League game before he was drafted by Geelong with pick 20 – primarily off his school footy form for Melbourne Grammar.

Five years later, the speedster took out his second consecutive Carji Greeves Medal and is arguably Geelong’s most important player.

Hunter had his own junior struggles. The rangy 188cm runner – Max measured up at 189cm in his draft year – didn’t make the Sandringham Dragons squad and opted to play school footy with Melbourne Grammar last year while he completed Year 12.

And just like Max, Hunter got noticed at APS level and was invited by the Oakleigh Chargers to trial ahead of his draft year.

“It was disappointing (to miss out in under-16s), obviously, you want to be in these programs,” Hunter said.

“You want to be part of the programs, you have a bit of doubt in your footy.

“But I’ve continued working hard, continue to try to play good footy. And I think last year I built that confidence that I’m good enough to get drafted, good enough to play in these Coates Talent League games.”

‘CLOSE TO IDENTICAL’

The key contrast between the two is that Hunter shapes as a later draft or rookie selection in this year’s draft, while Max was a first-round pick.

Although the 2020 draft required far more guesswork with Victorian players sidelined for the entire season, which worked in Max’s favour that year.

Unsurprisingly, Geelong is among the clubs to show an interest in Hunter after a promising draft year, along with Sydney and Fremantle.

Lee concedes she is no Aussie rules expert, but her assessment of her two sons is food for thought for any club looking to take a punt that could pay off handsomely.

“I would say their trajectory is close enough to identical,” Lee said.

“He’s certainly trained and the pathway program has been great for him this year, the first year he’s been involved in that.

“But there’s enormous upside because he certainly hasn’t over trained he hasn’t trained too much. He’s trained what I would call to be age appropriate.

“It looks like there’s this fast trajectory. I suppose a young boy that develops early, he has a fast upside when he’s in year seven and eight and nine and then plateaus.

“Every kid probably has an upside at some stage of their sporting career. Our boys are just a bit a bit later.

“Having said that, Hunter still needs to fill out I would suspect,” she chuckled.

Max’s meteoric rise fills Hunter with hope that he can do the same, having shown encouraging signs as a high-impact playmaker for Vic Metro – who Max never got the chance to represent – and the Chargers.

“We definitely have similar development, we’ve been very similar throughout the years,” Hunter said.

“He kind of struggled – obviously didn’t have his draft year, so it’s a bit different. But in those other years with the Talent League.

“I see him go out and play pretty good footy here at the MCG, so if I can follow somewhat of his path, I would be pretty happy with that.”

CATS FAMILY FAIRYTALE

Geelong has had the Guthrie brothers and the Ablett brothers this century.

Could the Holmes brothers be next?

“That’d be pretty unreal. Not many people get the chance to play even with their brothers at all, but to be able to do in the AFL would be pretty amazing – not just for us, for the whole family, as well,” Hunter said.

“(Geelong and I) kind of had small chats throughout the year, and obviously Max is always chatting to them, trying to get me there.

“Just hyping me up a bit to the recruiters, but I don’t know how much they listen to him.”

Hunter met with Geelong for the first time at the draft combine, and rival clubs have suspected all year long that the Cats will take him.

It would make sense in more ways than one, given recruiting doyen Stephen Wells’ success drafting prospects with elite athletic traits and Geelong’s breakneck gamestyle.

Geelong will take two selections in the national draft, holding picks 19 and 40, and has one free rookie spot after committing to redrafting George Stevens and Keighton Matofai-Forbes.

Informing the Cats recruiting team a few years back that he had a brother coming through, Max is daring to dream.

“It’d be very cool yeah, absolutely dream of it. It’d be very fun to have him at the club,” Max said.

“I’ve been asking them how they have been viewing his game this year.

“I let them know that I had a brother a few years ago that was coming through.

“I think he’d fit in well. I guess we’ll see next week, so fingers crossed. He’d fit in well on a wing or half-back.”

Lee also has her fingers crossed.

“Hunter ending up at Geelong is nothing short of a fairytale for the whole family,” Naylor said.

“It would be amazing. Geelong has been nothing short of amazing for Max, so in the absence of knowing how awesome any other club is, we love Geelong. We love the Geelong people, we love the Geelong fans, we really do love Geelong and would love Hunter to have a piece of that.

“Because you can see how lovely it is. But that’s not to say that Hunter wouldn’t have that same feeling at another club.

“So the draft is an equitable and fair system and we have to abide by that, we will abide by that. We’ll just have our fingers crossed.”

No matter the club, Hunter just wants to hear his name is read out.

“The dream’s to get drafted, it doesn’t really matter where you go. It’d be great to stay in Victoria, but I’d happily go anywhere,” Hunter said.

HOME AWAY FROM HOLMES

Max looks across the familiar Duncan Mackinnon athletics track in Murrumbeena, just down the road from the house of Holmes.

“The last time I would have really trained with him properly here would have been years ago and he was little, hadn’t hit puberty yet,” Max recalls.

“So I used to whack him but I ran with him the other day and he almost got me, so it was a bit scary.”

Naylor, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the 4x400 relay at Kuala Lumpur in 1998, used to train the boys here – not too much, though.

“My boys have done track and field, I’ve been their athletics coach only because we always say at our household, ‘Less is more’,” Naylor said.

The love and care from his passionate mother and the tutelage from an Olympian has helped Hunter and Max get to the position they find themselves.

“She’s my biggest supporter really. Obviously helped me with so much in my running – ever since I was little, she would get us running,” Hunter said.

“But even my footy, she doesn’t have a great footy mind, but she sees things differently.”

Max said in his best and fairest acceptance speech that his mum wouldn’t care if he had five touches – if they were five blistering runs, she would be happy.

“I just love a running game. It excites me, it opens up the game,” Naylor said.

“I’m not into the metrics of football at all, insofar as the accumulation of stats, anyone can handball the ball to themselves and there’s two stats!

“I’m very much into stepping back and having a big picture look at the game. So if both of the boys have competed fiercely, if they played a team game – both of the boys are very team orientated.

“And if they have played to their strengths, and running, fast running, is their strength.

“They’ve both competed for Victoria in track and field, Max competed for Australia, but they’re both national level track and field athletes that happen to love football more.”

OWN IDENTITY

As similar as they are in just about every facet, there are some differences between the two brothers.

“Max is probably quite fierce on the field. Hunter certainly is determined, but probably doesn’t look that demonstratively, in an aggressive sense,” Naylor said.

“And he probably just looks probably sort of softer and silkier if that’s such a saying.”

How about their personality difference?

“Personality wise, they are…” Naylor paused.

“Gosh, yeah they are really similar!”

That isn’t by design though, with Naylor conscious not to raise Holmes clones.

“For me I look at my boys and try and make sure that they are two very different boys,” Naylor said.

“And it’s important for him to have independence of thought, agency in himself and all of that. Certainly helps having Max because he can copy Max and really leans into Max for advice and Max is an excellent big brother.

“I’m so proud of him as being a big brother, and the boys get along so well and love each other.”

Max’s message to Hunter has been simple yet effective.

“He just says, go out there and show yourself, show your strengths,” Hunter said.

“Sometimes you fall into the trap of just playing footy, but you don’t show what you’re good at. So this year focusing on showing my speed and my run, and just taking the game on, taking my opportunities.”

If Hunter does get his draft opportunity, the tag of ‘Max Holmes’ brother’ is sure to follow him around in the early part of his career.

Hunter takes it as a compliment as he looks to forge his own identity.

“It’s a pretty good guy to be compared with what he’s doing, so I don’t mind it at all. And I’m proud of what he’s doing,” Hunter said.

“Obviously I want to be my own person, I want to play well, I want to make a name for myself. But I’m happy to be Max Holmes’ brother for now.”