AFL recruiters set to size up talent in school footy
School footy looks set to return in mid-July and with the under-18 competition on hold, AFL recruiters might find the next batch of stars coming out of the classroom.
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Like Victorian students, AFL recruiters expect they’ll be going back to school soon.
With the under-18 NAB League delayed until September, scouts will fix their binoculars on Associated Public Schools (APS), Associated Grammar Schools (AGS) and Associated Catholic College (ACC) matches.
There is talk of the school competitions kicking off in mid-July, at the start of term three.
All clubs watch the competitions closely, particularly the APS, the premiership for which was shared last year by Haileybury College, Caulfield Grammar and Carey Grammar.
The ACC plays games on Wednesday afternoons, the AGS on Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings, and the APS on Saturdays.
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One recruiter said AFL clubs would be “all over’’ the school competitions when they started.
“More than we normally are. There would be a club representative at every game, especially for the APS,’’ the recruiter said.
“Once school footy starts we’d probably spend more time watching that than the NAB just based on the fact most of the best kids are playing school footy because they’ve been poached with scholarships. The NAB League becomes a bit weaker – a lot more bottom-agers, the 17-year-olds come in, to replace the school kids.’’
The recruiter said the delay of the NAB League season was a blow for top-age players with no “exposed form’’.
He said all clubs would have identified the top bracket of prospects based on last year’s matches and at the 2019 under-16 championships.
But he said with fewer matches there would be less scope for “bolters’’, players who rise quickly during a season, as Sam Sturt did for the Dandenong Stingrays in 2018.
“The one it will affect is the kids who weren’t part of the NAB League program last year for whatever reason, school or injury,’’ the recruiter said.
“This was going to be their year. They’re the kids, the ones without any sort of exposed form prior to this year, who are going to feel it, because all we’ve got to go on in terms of vision is two practice games and maybe an intraclub. And you know what it’s like in those, not every one is going 100 per cent, players are being played in different positions, other are on limited game time. So the kids you don’t know a lot about, you’re only seeing snippets.’’
Another scout said: “Yeah, I don’t think you’ll be seeing too many bolters if there’s not much footy played. The bolter who normally comes on in the second half of the year, that’s a lot less likely. But who knows. If we get six games of school footy and a month or six weeks of NAB, that might be different.
“It will depend on how many picks the clubs have – and who knows what that’s going to look like - and how deep it goes. They are a lot of Academy players in this year’s draft.’’
He added: “The schools will be packed – with those that have still got their jobs anyway!’’
A number has scouts has been laid off as AFL clubs scramble to cut costs.
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Recruiters expect the school competitions to start at least a month earlier than the NAB League, whose region managers and coaches had a link-up up with the AFL’s Lee Fraser last night.
They also believe that if local football starts, some NAB League players will turn out for their clubs.
“The ones who aren’t at the private schools, are we going to be watching them play for Montmorency or Hampton Rovers? That’s another one we don’t know. We’re all flying blind here at the moment,’’ one of the recruiters said.
He said the APS was the strongest of the three competitions but all demanded watching.
The APS’s Luke Soulos said a start to winter sport – football, soccer, netball, hockey, cross country and basketball - would hinge on approval from the State Government.
Fraser told NAB League officials that no one could say when the season would start or how it would be structured.