Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton wants the NAB League to become an under-19 competition to stop young talent being lost to footy

Five-time premiership hero Dermott Brereton lists Hayden McLean’s AFL debut as one of his proudest footy moments. He often feared McLean would be one of the talented young players lost to the game due to problems with the development pathway.

Hayden McLean tackles Aaron Sandilands during his AFL debut for Sydney. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

Watching young Swan Hayden McLean play his first game for Sydney last weekend was one of my sweetest moments in league football.

I coached young “Doss” for three years at Beaumaris Sharks.

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We frequently stayed out on the ground after training for one-on-one marking practice.

Even then as a 14-year-old, he would crash into me like a mature player.

By 15 he was almost too big to handle.

He has a natural aggression that doesn’t always exist in ruckmen and now I look at him and see a touch of Shane Mumford about him.

He loves body contact and laid eight tackles in his first game.

Having played a very small role in his football journey, I can understand just how proud his parents must be.

But it took an incredibly strong will to make it onto an AFL list — he was overlooked in five different intakes such as the national draft, pre-season draft and rookie draft.

I never doubted that he was good enough for AFL, but I feared the system would work against him.

Hayden McLean was drafted from the SANFL after being overlooked. Picture: Tricia Watkinson.

Hayden McLean tackles Aaron Sandilands during his AFL debut for Sydney. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

So many times in the past two and a half years recruiters have asked me if I knew of any talent good enough to play AFL.

I always mentioned Hayden McLean’s name, and every time they’d say, “yeah, we like him, he’s a little stiff not to be on an AFL team list”.

They thought he was not big enough at 197cm to be a centre square ruckman and that he was not agile enough to be a key forward.

So he was pigeon holed. Each recruiter had a note in their back pocket to justify why they should not recognise his talent.

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When my son was a teenager, he would occasionally want to have a party at our house.

I would ask whether or not his mate “Doss” would be coming because he would sort out any gatecrashers.

He would always step up to the plate for his smaller mates — I might add that everyone was smaller than him.

Our junior team played against Jack Higgins’ team in a couple of grand finals.

Higgins had the most advanced football brain in that junior competition and was an exceptional talent, but McLean was the best player.

Our team had nine players go on to play under-18 TAC Cup football with the Sandringham Dragons.

McLean became joint captain with his former Beauie’ Sharks teammate Lucas Barrett.

Barrett was the best inside ball-winning player that I have ever seen in junior football.

But the Dragons coaches, as they are entitled to do, decided to use 190cm Charlie Constable as the inside midfielder and played the smaller Barrett in the back pocket.

He was not able to showcase his wares and was overlooked in the draft just like McLean.

By the time he turned 19, Barrett, and three more of those nine Sharks players, had quit football.

I tried to convince him to stick at it, but he was a smart kid and decided he was best to go to university and concentrate on his studies.

He believed that once you were overlooked in the draft it was too difficult to forge a path into the AFL. I agree.

Dermott Brereton always rated Hayden McLean as a potential AFL player.

We are losing too many talented young men to the game.

There is no way they have peaked at 18, and they are surely better equipped to play the game by 21, but, unfortunately, it is too late. Many have already given up.

The under-18 competition is poles apart from what is required at VFL level.

The AFL is another level again for young, immature bodies.

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True, there will always be a Sam Walsh and a Connor Rozee in each draft, and the top 30 generally can look after themselves.

But of the roughly 100 players that get drafted by clubs each year, about 10 will have any form of meaningful impact.

They need at least two seasons in the system and in some cases more.

But the pressure on list management means that many are turfed out before they turn 21, even though they are still on the upward trajectory.

Brereton believes the Under-18 NAB League should become an under-19 competition. Picture: Alan Barber

THE SOLUTION

The NAB League should become an under-19 competition.

Further to that, the only way an 18-year-old should be drafted is if the nominating club uses a first-round draft pick.

This simple change would ease the pressure on 18-year-old kids in their last year of school — most of these teenagers are not mature enough to juggle football commitments and Year 12 education.

Leading into September, it is arguably the most important six months these young men will have to face for the next two decades of their lives.

It will decide their future.

Not everyone is going to be like Jack Higgins and leave school half way through year 12 to concentrate on football.

Casey Demons were one of the last premiers in the VFL Development League. Picture: Michael Klein.

DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE DEMISE AN ISSUE

One of the biggest issues has been the demise of the development league — in effect, the VFL’s reserve grade.

Most AFL clubs used it as an under-21 competition, giving them a chance to develop their immature talent.

But now AFL House has made the competition defunct.

As it stands now, immature players on clubs’ lists can play AFL, VFL or if they miss VFL selection, which is frequent, they are doled out to a local club.

They then train with that local club on a Thursday night and play under their coach on the weekend.

Gone are the days when a young man who has missed out on being drafted could be invited to train and play with an AFL’s development league team.

It was a perfect setting for young talent to develop against bigger bodies and similar opposition, all while receiving the tutelage of a professional coach using AFL facilities.

Take Hawthorn’s Luke Breust for example.

He was rookie drafted in 2009 and spent his first season in the development league team because he wasn’t ready to play against seasoned professionals.

He was a shy lad from country NSW. He had to be boarded with a family and was looked after on the field.

He has gone on to play 202 games and is closing in on 400 goals.

If Luke Breust came along now as an 18-year-old, he would be pushed out to one of the clubs in the Eastern Football League.

The system would be working against him and it is debatable whether he would make it through.

It is fantastic that players such as Brodie Mihocek and now Hayden McLean can make it to AFL level through the back door.

But the reality is that our system is seeing way too many young men quite before they turn 19.