AFL clubs lining up for draft prospects Angus Brayshaw and Tom Lamb

DRAFT WATCH: UNCLE James hasn’t given much advice to likely top-10 draft pick Angus Brayshaw.

Victorians Angus Brayshaw and Tom Lamb look set to go high in the national draft. Picture

UNCLE James hasn’t given much advice to likely top-10 draft pick Angus Brayshaw.

The North Melbourne chairman might have forged an impressive domestic batting career, but when it comes to footy, words of wisdom are better left to brother Mark Brayshaw, Angus’s dad, who briefly played for the Roos.

“Uncle James likes checking up how I’m going, but on the advice side he just stays out and leaves it to dad,” Angus said yesterday.

Uncle James aside, Brayshaw, who will on Sunday strive to underline his standing as the top midfielder in a hot draft pool when Vic Metro plays Vic Country, has used a deep card to call on for first-class tips.

It started in pre-season, when Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson — a teammate of Mark — mapped out a plan for the gun inside teenager.

The running and strength work Clarkson helped devise got the big-bodied midfielder in shape.

He then spent a week with Melbourne as part of the AIS-AFL Academy, an intensity so high Brayshaw would return from training to sleep, wake for dinner and then go back to bed.

The 187cm, 86kg junior with impressive skills on both feet then toured Europe with the Academy under the watch of Brad Johnson and Matthew Lloyd and has used his North connections to work with Brad Scott’s midfield coach, Darren Crocker.

Bright draft prospects Brayshaw and Lamb. Picture: Colleen Petch

“(Crocker) taught me at stoppages to use my size to my advantage to get clearances and a couple of techniques to outmuscle or move my opponent to get the ball,” the commerce/engineering student said.

Brayshaw, who models his game on Scott Pendlebury and Nat Fyfe, has gone to extraordinary levels to prepare for transition into AFL life, which nearly came last year.

The Fremantle fan who relocated to Melbourne in 2000 missed the draft cut-off by nine days.

“It’s ridiculously close but I think I’m lucky things worked out this way,” he said.

“I’m a bigger body and the way the game is going it’s a good thing. I can use both sides of my body well, read the game pretty well and make good decisions.”

Brayshaw (21 disposals) collected the Chairman’s Medal for the AIS best against Collingwood’s VFL side last month, and when the Academy faced the European Legion it was Vic Country’s Tom Lamb who starred, slotting five goals.

The grandson of revered premiership Saint Ian Cooper, who drives Lamb to games, is one of several promising key forwards available this year.

The 192cm target booted six in Round 1 of the TAC Cup before shifting to the midfield, where he collected 33 disposals to show his Andrejs Everitt-like versatility.

Lamb’s dad Wayne played 21 games for Melbourne and Fitzroy and Cooper still imparts goalkicking knowledge on the first-round prospect.

“He says you need a consistent routine. Kick it through ¾ way up and take six steps and then six running steps,” Lamb said.

Lamb trained at St Kilda this year and attended Monday night’s game to track Nick Riewoldt’s running patterns.

“After watching him and how professional he is, it’s just crazy. He just runs all day and his work ethic is second to none, so that’s what I try and incorporate in my game,” he said.

SUNDAY: Round 1 of the National Under-18 Championships

Vic Metro v Vic Country, 11am, Sandringham