AFL Townsville’s Top 150 Under-18 players of 2024

Townsville’s junior AFL competitions continue to churn out future seniors at a rate of knots. We celebrate the 150 players born in 2006 or later establishing themselves as rising stars of the district.

AFL Townsville Top 150 juniors of 2024

Hermit Park president Robbie Bethune predicted the club’s next great AFL Townsville dynasty would begin in the next 24 months as a promising stock of juniors reach maturity.

A Townsville Bulletin analysis of the district’s top 150 players born in 2006 or later has revealed that Hermit Park is home to 43 of the city’s most promising juniors.

Nearly a dozen players aged 18 or younger played for the Tigers’ Senior Men in 2024 while a further seven under-18s earned their first taste of senior football in reserve grade.

Bethune said the great majority of those players had begun their Aussie rules careers in Hermit Park’s Auskick program and backed those former Tiger cubs to lead Hermit Park to multiple senior flags.

“It (Hermit Park’s next dynasty) is very close,” Bethune said.

AFL Townsville Grand Final 2021. Tigers win the Final . Picture: Alix Sweeney

“If it’s not next year it will definitely be in 2026, and for a good three or four years I believe we’ll for be in a really good stead in the senior grades.

“I think it’s going to last a long time, actually – hopefully it does.”

Bethune said the Hermit Park model was built around a family environment and commitment to coaching excellence.

Getting parents invested into their children’s journey at the club and the appointment of talented coaches, overseen by a head of coaching that focuses on coaching development, how they run their sessions and the structures they play to has been the key.

Not that there haven’t been missteps along the way. Bethune said the club’s push to debut young players in recent seasons saw some players thrown into the deep end before they were ready.

“Probably some of them a little too early but I think we’ve learned from that,” he said.

“Once they get into that last year of U17s football we do throw them in there. If you’re a good player, let’s go and do it.

“I think we’ve driven that culture around the club that if you want to play senior football it doesn’t start when you’re 18, it can start earlier if you want to work hard to do that.”

Five players (Henry Stephens, Tyron Bethune, William Schopp, Ashton Leeming and Alex Demopoulos) featured in 10 games or more for the Tigers senior men’s team knocked out one week shy of the grand final.

Originally published as AFL Townsville’s Top 150 Under-18 players of 2024