AFL 2021: Follow all the post-season news at Port Adelaide
The Power have been sweating on Jase Burgoyne’s decision to become a father-son player - after meeting with the son of Peter they now have their answer.
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Jase Burgoyne has decided to follow in his dad Peter’s shoes and become a Port Adelaide father-son player.
The Advertiser has confirmed that Burgoyne has decided to nominate the Power as a father-son player for next month’s draft.
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Burgoyne, the son of 2004 premiership winner and 240 AFL-gamer Peter, had until Friday’s AFL deadline to choose whether to nominate the Power, which will give them the option of matching rivals’ bids on him in the national draft on November 24-25.
He met with the Power’s recruiting team last week online and has subsequently decided to go with the club where his father starred at.
Burgoyne had said after the SA draft combine earlier this month he would make a call that would be determined by what suited him and his family after he revealed that he hadn’t made a decision as to whether to nominate the Power yet.
The Advertiser understands that the Power were always confident that Burgoyne would nominate the club he grew up supporting.
The Woodville-West Torrens half-back/wingman has been rated as a potential top 40 pick by some draft experts such as Kevin Sheehan.
The Power has the late picks, 63, 73, 74 and 92 to now match any bid for the 186cm Burgoyne in next month’s draft.
He joins uncle Shaun at Alberton, after the ex Port and Hawthorn legend returned to the Power after his playing career with the Hawks ended at the end of this season.
His older brother Trent was delisted by the Power earlier this month after two seasons as a rookie without playing a game.
How good can SA son-of-a-gun Burgoyne be?
AFL draft guru Kevin Sheehan says he likes what he sees of Port Adelaide father-son candidate Jase Burgoyne, describing him as a potential top-40 talent.
The Power was set to meet this week with Burgoyne – the son of former Power star Peter Burgoyne – to determine whether both parties would commit to him landing at Alberton.
If Burgoyne nominated Port Adelaide, the club could match rivals’ draft bids next month, but the 18-year-old Woodville-West Torrens halfback/wingman told reporters on Saturday he was unsure what he would do and had to weigh up his options.
Sheehan, the AFL’s talent ambassador, said Burgoyne caught his eye playing for SA in two national under-19 championship matches this year.
“He did very well in both of those national games,” Sheehan told News Corp.
“It’s a quick impression and at a glance you think ‘I like what I see there’.
“Just his use of the ball and speed, he’s got a lovely step through the traffic, a lovely dodge.
“He’s lightly built at the moment and needs to get some strength.
“The bids comes, but does it come in the 20s or 30s – somewhere there I would’ve thought.”
Burgoyne this year played three SANFL league matches for Port Adelaide, as well as four reserves and eight under-18s for the Eagles.
Sheehan identified Burgoyne as being in the next group of SA prospects behind likely No.1 pick Jason Horne-Francis, skilful Glenelg halfback Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and South Adelaide midfielder Matty Roberts.
The talent guru said his view was based on what he had seen, as opposed to recruiters who would have interviewed this year’s talent pool and assessed their profiles.
“I thought in a couple of those national games ‘gee, he looks a player’,” said Sheehan of Burgoyne, whose dad Peter played 240 games for the Power, including in its 2004 flag.
“Just to the eye, Burgoyne wins it enough and then steps through them and kicks it well.
“He’s impressed me twice for what he’s shown and looks comfortable enough in his skillset to be on an AFL list.”
Burgoyne tested at SA’s draft combine on Saturday – a few hours before the Power delisted his older brother Trent after two seasons on the list without playing a game.
Last month their uncle, Port Adelaide premiership player and ex-Hawthorn star Shaun Burgoyne, rejoined the Power in a multifaceted off-field role after ending his 407-game career.
Woodville-West Torrens talent manager Darren Hams said the club was confident Burgoyne would get selected in the draft, to be held on November 24 and 25.
“He’s got speed, he’s very clean, his decision-making is good and he reads the footy well,” Hams said.
The big decision for Port’s father-son gun
The son of a former Port Adelaide star says he needs to weigh up what is best for him with his family before deciding if he will commit to joining the Power.
Woodville-West Torrens halfback/wingman Jase Burgoyne is unsure if he will nominate Port Adelaide, which has access to him as a father-son prospect due to his dad Peter’s 240 games there, ahead of next month’s national draft.
The Power has collated late picks, giving it the option of matching rivals’ bids if Burgoyne and the club nominate each other.
Considered a top-40 candidate, the 18-year-old will meet with Power officials next week.
Then both parties will make a call on his future.
“I haven’t made it (mind) up yet and I’m not too sure, so I guess I’ve got to do some hard thinking,” Burgoyne said at SA’s draft combine on Saturday.
“I haven’t had too many talks with Port yet, I have one with them next week, so we’ll see how that goes.
“If it’s best for me to be here in Adelaide, then that’s the decision I’m going to make.
“Also my dad too … he’s a big choice in it.
“He just wants me to be happy and play AFL, he doesn’t care where I go.
“Anything’s possible at this point.”
A few hours after Burgoyne spoke on Saturday, the Power delisted his brother Trent after two seasons on the list without playing a game.
Jase Burgoyne, a state under-19 representative, has grown up as a Power supporter.
His brother Trent has spent the past two years at the club as a rookie without playing a game and is now out of contract.
Last month their uncle, Port Adelaide premiership player and ex-Hawthorn star Shaun Burgoyne, rejoined the Power in a multifaceted off-field role after ending his 407-game career.
Peter was in the Power’s inaugural squad and also part of its 2004 flag.
“I’ll just be happy to get on an AFL list,” Burgoyne said.
“If it’s with Port great, if it’s not, I’ll still be happy with the results.
“I don’t mind where I go.”
Burgoyne was nervous before the combine but was happy with how he tested.
He described his season as a bit frustrating due to recovering from knee surgery and then enduring groin problems.
It included three league matches for Port Adelaide as well as four reserves and eight under-18 games for the Eagles.
Burgoyne said he spoke to his dad before every match and always received honest feedback to help prepare him for the next level.
“It’s more about the improvements, not the things I do good,” he said
Burgoyne, a dashing runner with a classy kick, identified halfback and wing as his best positions.
The national draft will be held on November 24 and 25.
Why Port was set on crucial move up draft order
Moving four spots up in the draft is being viewed as a “significant win” by Port Adelaide’s recruiting team, Power general manager of football Chris Davies says.
The Power now have pick 12 in the upcoming draft after dealing pick 16 and Peter Ladhams for the earlier selection and a 2022 third-rounder.
Davies said the Power were very pleased with their position ahead of the draft.
“(Moving up was) significant enough to make it a part of the deal that we were interested in from day one,” he said.
“That was the bedrock of what we wanted out of any deal that we wanted for Peter.
“We were able to achieve that, 16 into 12 our recruiting guys would say now that is a significant win for us.”
The Power’s selection is set to be close to pick 15 on draft night after father-son bids for Nick Daicos and Sam Darcy come in.
Davies said moving up in the draft gave them a better chance of not only gaining a highly talented player but one that could address areas of need for the Power.
“We wanted to trade up the order and have the greatest flexibility in terms of a type in addition to high talent.” he said.
“We will go in with a mindset of picking the best particular player at that level of the draft.”
The deal for Ladhams went down to the final minutes of the trade period.
Davies said he believed the club would have been able to welcome back Ladhams if a trade wasn’t able to be struck.
“I think we are past that. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about whether a player can come back,” he said.
“Again the question would have been if a player is looking for an alternative club is it the (current) club’s responsibility to have them back as well.
“I think those things work in swings and roundabouts.
“I don’t have any doubts that Pete could have returned like Sam (Powell-Pepper) will return, like Pete returned last year, just like Karl Amon returned three or four years ago, just like Ollie Wines returned two years ago.
“The trade period can be tumultuous I get that but I don’t think you ever get to a point where bridges have been burnt that far.”
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The Power will sit down with father-son prospect Jase Burgoyne over the next two to three weeks to decide whether he and the club will commit to him landing at Alberton.
Port have the late draft picks to match any bids and Davies said they had been impressed by Burgoyne.
“Jase has a decision to make himself, as does the club, this will be a mutual decision,” he said.
“We’ve liked what Jase has done. He’s played some good SANFL footy for us … he probably hasn’t as many opportunities at a senior league level at the (Woodville-West Torrens) Eagles.
“He is a good enough player for us to consider.”
‘Unfit’ Powell-Pepper on notice for pre-season
Port Adelaide has turned the blowtorch on Sam Powell-Pepper by insisting he fixes “troubles in his off-season over the last couple of years” and turns up to pre-season training in decent shape.
Power footy boss Chris Davies said on Thursday Powell-Pepper needed to do things better to prove he “has a proper commitment to play at AFL level”.
The 23-year-old wants more midfield time at the Port Adelaide, which led him considering a move back to Western Australia during the trade period.
West Coast showed preliminary interest, but the Eagles prioritised the signing of Sam Petrevski-Seton from Carlton.
Powell-Pepper was the medical sub for the Power in the finals series, after he was dropped for the last two games of the home-and-away season.
The now 23-year-old burst onto the scene in his first year after being drafted from Western Australia, and then backed it up in his second season, despite copping a ban from the AFL after an investigation found that he inappropriately touched a woman at a nightclub while drunk.
But he hasn’t quite replicated that stellar early career form in the three seasons since, and Davies said he needed to show he has the commitment to realise his potential.
“Sam came into our club and played some significant footy in his first two years. He has had some troubles in his off-season over the last couple of years that I would suggest right now that he needs to fix if he really wants to become a midfielder,” Davies said.
“Which was the conversation we had with him and his manager in this trade period, then there are some things that Sam needs to do better as well, I’m not going to hide from that.
“That is something that we have put on the table right now and you’ll all get to see whether Sam has a proper commitment to play at AFL level through this pre-season.
“That is his challenge, we’ve supported Sam in many situations so far. His challenge is in front of him now.
“We can’t do anything about what has happened previously. If he really wants to play in the midfield, which we have a need for that type of player to continue to take some steps forward, then that will be his challenge from here on.
“We will see how committed he is to playing in the midfield by the way he comes back in pre-season, so don’t miss that.”
Powell-Pepper took leave from the club on the eve of the 2021 season to focus on his well being after he missed a mandatory rehab training session and club officials were left knocking on his door trying to track him down.
At the time he was nursing a broken hand from a tackle at training.
Davies said Powell-Pepper needed to improve his fitness going into pre-season.
“You don’t need to read anything between the lines … the situation is really clear,” he said.
“Sam needs to come back in a fitter shape than he has previously, and if he does than he has every chance like those others to play in our midfield.”
Davies said there was an opportunity for Powell-Pepper if he can show the fitness required, with the Power to look inward to improve their midfield.
The Advertiser understands that some of the Power’s young guns such as Connor Rozee, Zak Butters, Xavier Duursma and even Miles Bergman have been locked in to spend pre-season with the midfield group.
Davies said the Power had faith this was where their improvement from 2021 could come from rather than outside the club.
“I think it is pretty well known that we had a decent crack at Zach Merrett last year,” he said. “We had some interest in some other players who obviously didn’t work out as well.
“You can look at what you think might be better from other clubs or you can take the approach where we have some guys who are of high talent on our list and need some exposure.
“Clearly, time will tell whether that is the right decision or not but I think we have a pretty good record lately of suggesting that there are some players in our group who can grow and giving them the opportunity is as important as maybe bringing in another player from another club to add to depth.”
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