Collingwood NGA prospect Isaac Quaynor shapes as a top-15 AFL draft pick after shining at Oakleigh Chargers

A COLLINGWOOD Next Generation Academy prospect has drawn comparisons to premiership Magpie Heritier Lumumba, shaping as a first-round lock in the AFL draft.

THE comparison has been made before.

The physical resemblance strikes you when you meet him. His dare off halfback also draws obvious similarity.

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Truth be known, Isaac Quaynor was probably expecting the question.

“How many times have you been likened to Heritier Lumumba?”

Quaynor chuckles: “A fair bit. A lot of my mates like to bring it up and...I’ve watched his documentary and as a kid he physically looks like me,” he said.

“He was a really good player and I probably play a little bit similar to him in the way we both like to run, love to try take people on.”

Heritier Lumumba in full flight in 2016.

Four years after Lumumba departed Collingwood, the Magpies might be about to land his lookalike.

Vic Metro coach Marty Allison said after the under-18 national championships that Quaynor could “probably play in Collingwood’s side on the weekend”.

“I think Collingwood are going to be really happy about the player they are going to get, he’s going to be ready to play,” Allison said.

Isaac Quaynor gathers the ball. Picture: Mark Dadswell

Quaynor was considered Oakleigh Chargers’ top draft prospect at the start of the TAC Cup season. His form over the year has only confirmed those suspicions.

The 18-year-old was named in the All Australian team after starring for Vic Metro at the national championships, furthering his credentials as a top 15 draft selection.

As a member of Collingwood’s Next Generation Academy, the Pies may have to part ways with a single-digit pick if they want the Beverley Hills junior.

Quaynor, listed at 179cm and 82kg, only started realising towards the end of 2017 he may be on the draft radar.

Isaac Quaynor’s intercept marking is a highlight. Picture: Pat Scala

“I was pretty oblivious to it all, I was just playing because I really enjoyed playing, I didn’t even know my name was being circulated within anything,” Quaynor said.

“To get the invite to the (under 17s) All Star game at the end of the year was a huge surprise and that was probably the first time I was like, ‘OK, maybe I can do something with this’.”

Quaynor was raised in Doncaster East, the leafy inner east a long way from where his father grew up in Ghana.

Quaynor has been to his father’s country of origin once when he was 11, meeting many family members he never knew existed.

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“Got to meet all the cousins, got thousands and thousands of cousins it seems so it was cool to meet all the family and I got to meet Grandma before she passed away,” he said.

“It was good to experience a bit of the African lifestyle, which is very different to what we have now.”

Quaynor also played basketball as a junior but his talents quickly took him to football, co-captaining Beverley Hills’ colts team to a premiership in 2016.

If selected in the draft, he would also follow fellow recent Lions’ products Ed and Tom Phillips, Christian Petracca, Blake Hardwick and Sam McLarty in progressing to the top level.

Junior coach Tony Edwards said Quaynor was always a talented player but needed confidence in his ability.

Isaac Quaynor (left, front row) celebrates Beverley Hills' Yarra Junior league premiership in 2016. Picture: Supplied

“Just a brilliant young man, very respectful and a pleasure to coach,” junior coach Tony Edwards recalled.

“With his football, his got hands the size of buckets and I just got him to run across halfback and go for his marks and nothing got past him.

“Incredible skills as a footballer and if he puts his head down he’s going to go a long way.”

As a Collingwood NGA prospect, the Magpies will have first rights at Quaynor in November’s draft.

But Oakleigh Chargers coach Leigh Clarke recently told Leader Collingwood would have to use a top pick to land the exciting talent.

“This time last year we didn’t think we’d be talking about top 20 or anything but he continues to prove people wrong I guess,” Clarke said.

“I think Collingwood this time last year had only started to take notice of him but I think the reality is they won’t get him as cheap as they thought.

“If his development had have been a bit quieter … they might have got him really late but they’ll have to pay for him now.”

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