By Marc McGowan
There’s the kid from Tassie, an ex-basketballer now chasing his football dream, and a blue-chip prospect with the genes to match.
The Age will follow prospective AFL draftees Nathaniel Sulzberger, Noah Mraz and Levi Ashcroft throughout the season as they bid to join the big time in November.
Levi Ashcroft is one of the best prospects in this year’s AFL draft class.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The talented trio will share their unique stories and experiences, from this first pre-season instalment to the mid-year national championships and eventually draft night.
Let’s meet the players.
Levi Ashcroft
The surname grabs people’s attention first, but Levi Ashcroft’s talent and intangibles – from his leadership to how professional he already is – are why he could be this year’s No. 1 pick.
The son of triple premiership-winning ex-Lion Marcus and the brother of Will, the second selection in the 2022 draft, was one of only three bottom-age players, along with Finn O’Sullivan and Sid Draper, to make last year’s under-18 All-Australian team.
Ashcroft, who turned 17 on December 18, is a do-it-all midfielder who idolises Gary Ablett jnr and averaged 27 disposals and more than a goal a game for Coates Talent League premiers Sandringham Dragons last season.
The teenage star will try to complete the rare feat of playing in three straight flags for the Dragons in 2024, something his father achieved with the Brisbane Lions in the AFL (2001-03), after which he retired with a chronic hip problem to end an esteemed 318-game career.
Ashcroft is Sandringham’s co-captain with Brodie Findlay after winning the club’s best-and-fairest award last year.
“I want to be the best player in the draft. If that’s pick one, it’s pick one,” Ashcroft said.
“You’re always striving to be the best, whether it’s in your team, in the country, wherever. I feel like the best I can be, can be the best in the country, so that’s the goal.
“I’ve been inspired to keep performing, to be that, by my brother and people like [North Melbourne’s] Harry Sheezel and [Western Bulldog] Ryley Sanders, who I’ve played with at Sandy. Those guys have always been up there, and I’ve learned so much off them, and from what they’ve done.
“I feel like I can do the same and hopefully get into the AFL and make an impact like what they’re making.”
Levi Ashcroft hopes to follow his brother Will and father Marcus in becoming an AFL footballer.Credit: Getty Images
The obvious question for Ashcroft is whether he intends to follow in Will’s footsteps and be a Brisbane Lions father-son selection, or throw himself into an open draft where he could land anywhere.
For now, there is no decision. Will made his call in August of his draft year. The younger Ashcroft just wants to play football, starting with Calder Cannons at RSEA Park on Saturday.
The siblings share many similarities and are naturally competitive with one another, from the years they spent on the Gold Coast, where they would mark out a mini-football field with white spray paint in their front yard.
Sister Lucy, 14 and on track to be an AFLW player after representing Victoria at underage level, would team up with Levi against Will.
“Will had to kick it above his head for it to count as a mark. My sister and I would obviously kick it to each other – and we loved it,” Ashcroft said. “We’d play after school, before school, during holidays, on weekends, whenever we could.”
They tended to play more golf – Ashcroft has a handicap of seven – and cricket in the backyard as their football became more serious, before Will graduated to AFL ranks and moved back to Queensland, after the family relocated to Melbourne in 2019.
Like his older brother, Ashcroft has never had even a sip of alcohol and typically shuns going out, beyond something football-related.
“I have no interest [in alcohol]. I never saw what the point was in doing that. Neither has my brother,” he said. “I’m not obsessive, but I’m diligent and professional. I do extras and everything I can to be the best I can. But you’ve still got to have other things outside of footy, like golf – and I’m really into [watching] American sports. Doing other things, I think, is really important to your growth as a person.”
Noah Mraz
The decision was coming for a while.
Noah Mraz, emerging as Victoria’s best key-position prospect for the 2024 draft, was already skipping basketball training to be at the Dandenong Stingrays’ adjacent sessions, with football surging ahead as his priority.
After speaking with his parents, the 198-centimetre teenager from Endeavour Hills – a dual Vic Metro basketball representative – informed Dandenong Rangers coach Jason Manton in February last year that he was quitting to chase his AFL dream.
“I cried,” Mraz said, laughing as he recalled the moment.
Noah Mraz quit basketball to put everything into his AFL dream.Credit: Paul Jeffers
“I was genuinely sad. There were early mornings, late nights, and I worked really hard, so I felt [initially] like I just threw it all away. But that wasn’t really true because I feel like a lot of it’s carried on to footy, and I’m really happy with the decision. I prefer footy by a mile, so it’s OK – but it was still tough.”
It was a major change of heart inside 18 months, given Mraz opted not to attend the Stingrays’ second try-out after the 2021 season because he planned to focus on basketball.
However, at the Stingrays’ urging, Mraz returned soon after – having been a standout with his marking up forward in the opening try-out, after dominating as an athletic ruckman for Narre North Foxes that year – and everything changed from there.
“I came down and within a week, I was hooked,” he said.
“The environment, the training, everything. I loved it from the start. In basketball, they’re your teammates, but you kind of compete against them, whereas in footy, they’re [truly] your teammates.
“Then, it was just how hard we worked. It sounds cliched, but I love that stuff. I love pushing myself. The feeling after you’ve done a hard training session, and you’ve gone to absolute exhaustion [is unmatched].”
A broken left arm from an awkward ruck landing interrupted Mraz’s 2022 season, but he still made it back to play a game for Vic Country’s under-16s team on the Gold Coast. That was a precursor to greater things, even if Mraz was still figuring out whether he belonged.
He found out he was going to be the Stingrays’ full-back, which he was originally upset about.
“I wasn’t happy, then as the season went on, I loved it, and now it’s my favourite position,” Mraz said. “It feels good when you kick goals, but I’m happy to stop them. I love the challenge of it, and playing on a player and knowing that you’ve beaten them.”
After a slow start to last season, Mraz’s improvement suddenly became rapid – and Vic Country’s coaches took notice.
Brayden Maynard won a premiership with Collingwood in September.Credit: Eddie Jim
He received an invitation to trial with the under-18s as a bottom-ager, not expecting to make the cut, so he was shocked when he was named in the squad and even more so when he forced his way in for a game.
“I was playing in the ruck, and in the first five minutes I took an intercept mark and hit up [future West Coast player] Archer Reid in the forward line with a lace-out kick,” Mraz said.
“I’ve never kicked like that in my life, so I was pretty happy. Then I was like, ‘Maybe I should be here’ and I ended up playing a pretty good game, so I was really happy with it.”
Those lingering doubts are gone, with Mraz now a first-round prospect, having played in last year’s AFL Futures match at the MCG – before watching his Magpies win the grand final – then earning AFL Academy selection.
That academy opportunity meant he had the chance to spend a week training with Collingwood in late January, and they grouped him with Nick Daicos, Isaac Quaynor and Brayden Maynard in his first training drill.
“They rolled the ball out, and I had to pick it up and take on the tackler, who was ‘Bruzzy’ Maynard,” Mraz said. “He didn’t crunch me – I think he was pretty nice with it – but I was a little bit [winded]. It was probably the best week of my life.”
Mraz will miss the Stingrays’ season-opener against Geelong Falcons on Sunday after sustaining a concussion in an intra-club game two Mondays ago.
Nathaniel Sulzberger
Guangzhou is a sprawling port city in China, about 120 kilometres north-west of Hong Kong – and also the unlikely origins for Nathaniel Sulzberger transforming into an AFL draft prospect.
After a two-season stint playing football in the under eights for New Norfolk, near Hobart, Sulzberger dumped a sport he did not particularly enjoy to instead do Little Athletics.
That could have been the end of his football road, particularly given the family relocated to China in late 2014, when his mother Stella scored an overseas posting while working for the Australian consulate. The Sulzbergers were there for three years.
Nathaniel Sulzberger relocated from Hobart to Melbourne last year to boost his AFL hopes.Credit: Joe Armao
“They had a team called the Guangzhou Scorpions, and were sponsored by Port Adelaide at the time, so dad [Daniel] got really into that with another of the expats and ended up coaching them,” Sulzberger said.
“They, along with the Australian consulate, ran a big Auskick program as well, so I was doing Auskick the whole time we were there, which was awesome.”
Sulzberger trained with the Scorpions occasionally, and even played a game for them in 2016 against Australia’s visiting Flying Boomerangs, an Indigenous underage squad coached by Mathew Stokes and Gavin Wanganeen.
He was hooked by the time the family returned to Tasmania at the start of 2018, and followed grade six schoolmates to North Hobart Football Club. Next came a stroke of luck for Sulzberger.
Brad Hastie, one of the North Hobart coaches, was also involved in the state program and helped him earn Tasmanian under-12s selection that year.
Soon after, Sulzberger, a midfield running machine who clocked a sub-six-minute two-kilometre time trial this pre-season, was ushered into the state’s Devils development program.
Athletics was still a major passion – he won gold in the under-13s high jump at the Australian championships in 2019 – but football was his priority.
“I started getting a bit more serious then,” he said. “By under-14s [in 2020], I’d pretty much set my mind on playing in the AFL. During that COVID year, and all through lockdown, I was pretty committed.
“I was kicking the footy pretty much every day, going up to the oval with dad, or by myself, and that set me up really well for the next year, when I took a step up in my footy.”
A broken left ankle sidelined Sulzberger from the national under-16 carnival, but his star has continued to rise, to the point he is one of Tasmania’s top prospects this year, along with Oliver Depaoli-Kubank.
But there is a key difference between the pair. Depaoli-Kubank will play for Tasmania in the Coates Talent League, whereas Sulzberger relocated to Melbourne in January last year to accept a scholarship with Caulfield Grammar, as well as represent Sandringham Dragons.
“[Fellow Tasmanian and Western Bulldog] Ryley Sanders moved over a few years ago, so I thought that was pretty cool, and he spoke to me about it,” Sulzberger said.
“The big thing for me was exposure. I was pretty well known in the Tassie football scene, so I thought I needed a new challenge and wanted to jump into a bigger pond. It wasn’t anything to do with [AFL Tasmania’s] program. Tassie footy gave me some great opportunities, and I’m forever grateful for the mentors I had.”
Sulzberger was thrilled when he found out Tasmania would have its own AFL team by 2028, but remains laser focused on putting together a strong campaign this year to grab recruiters’ attention.
“It’s really exciting for Tassie,” he said. “It’s something all the kids in Tassie have been waiting for, for a long time, so it’s pretty awesome to see it finally underway.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.