NAB League 2019: Cooper Sharman kicks four goals in third game for Oakleigh Chargers

In just his third NAB League game, Cooper Sharman showed why he is a bolter in this year’s AFL draft to be in Oakleigh Chargers’ best players in the win over Eastern Ranges.

Kaden Schreiber was named Oakleigh’s best player. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Balwyn forward Cooper Sharman underlined why he was one of the draft bolters in this year’s crop on Saturday.

Sharman was among Oakleigh Chargers’ best in their NAB League win over Eastern Ranges after a four-goal haul.

Three of his goals came in the second term as Oakleigh recorded a 12.11 (83) to 11.9 (75) win at Box Hill City Oval.

He finished with four majors, 18 disposals and six marks.

It was just Sharman’s third game in the under-18 competition after catching the attention of recruiters when playing for Balwyn in the Eastern Football League.

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“He’s come in with a pretty big reputation from exposure in the media but he’s earnt the trust of his teammates,” Oakleigh coach Leigh Clarke said.

“His ability and his traits are very draftable.

“The deficiencies he’s got are really quick fixes and probably should have been fixed with he was 16 or 17 rather than 18 or 19.

“He’s certainly got some areas he’s got to work on just around repeat efforts and efforts when the first option doesn’t work.

“He’s certainly very coachable and aware and willing to take direct feedback and work from that.”

Debutant Will Bainbridge won plaudits for his role in defence.

“He’s only trained with us for a couple of weeks but with Caulfield having the bye on the weekend, he certainly showed traits that we would have loved to have seen a bit more of him throughout the year,” Clarke said.

Alex Luxic was also called in for his first game.

Luxic kicked five goals in Vic Metro’s clash against Western Australia in the under-16 national championships earlier this month.

Tom Graham shrugs a tackle. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“At his age group he’s probably a tall forward but he’s probably a medium forward for us,” Clarke said.

“He kicked a goal and a really confident young kid who was pretty proud to show he could be at the standard. We look forward to working with him.”

Oakleigh trailed by 24 points at quarter-time before improving its record to 9-4.

“I thought our backs were really strong,” Clarke said.

“In the third quarter we kept the game pretty even, which allowed us to kick away and take the lead in the last.

“Lucas Westwood was really good. Just the number of times he was able to impact defensively as a small back and particularly to win the ball back as well.

“He would have taken a couple of intercept marks and was able to be really strong one on one as well so he’d be pretty proud of the way he went about it.”

Oakleigh has a bye in Round 15.

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