Wreck It Ralph: The 21 VFL stars rival clubs are scouting as weak 2025 draft looms

The 2025 draft crop is as thin as any in recent memory — so pro scouts are about to get busy. Jon Ralph looks at the VFL stars that rival clubs could turn into AFL regulars next year.

Henry Hustwaite hasn’t made the other side of half time in his past two AFL games.

A VFL beast who racks up monster clearance numbers, he can’t even get to the third quarter of AFL contests.

Against Melbourne he lasted only 42 minutes of game time for eight possessions and two clearances before Sam Mitchell pulled the trigger.

Five weeks later he fought his way back into the AFL side against Adelaide.

Henry Hustwaite has struggled to stay in Hawthorn’s AFL side. Picture: Getty Images

Then received only 32 minutes of game time across the first half before Mitchell injected Changkuouth Jiath into the action.

For a player aware that there are rival suitors it might have been the reminder that it is time for a change of scene.

The club had told him that they wanted him to bullet-proof his game so when he got another chance he might remain for good.

Instead he is in AFL no man’s land — too good for VFL, not yet able to seize his chance in the seniors.

Across the AFL landscape AFL recruiters are assessing the Under-18 national championships and realising that there are very few game-changers in a draft crop as thin as any in recent memory.

So club pro scouts are about to get busy.

In the VFL there are at least a dozen AFL semi-regulars putting up exceptional numbers without much AFL reward like Hustwaite.

Those pro scouts will make their reputation sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Which of them are just like that really big kid in the playground — too good for present company, but bullied when they get into a higher weight division.

And which of them are like Hawthorn’s Mabior Chol — who played 16 VFL games for Gold Coast in 2023 but flourished for the Hawks with 37 games and 62 goals since being traded for a future second-rounder.

Fremantle’s Patrick Voss played 29 VFL games for Essendon without cracking a debut and yet now is the Dockers’ ‘Prancing Pony’, a cult hero celebrating his goals with outlandish celebrations.

So which VFL stars can turn into AFL regulars in 2026 if given another chance elsewhere?

Originally published as Wreck It Ralph: The 21 VFL stars rival clubs are scouting as weak 2025 draft looms