He’s a hulking teenage key forward from Australia’s croc country, tipped to be the next Charlie Curnow and considered a possible rival to Harley Reid as this year’s No.1 draft pick, but one club has had him sewn up for years.
Meet Jed Walter, the top-end talent from the Top End, who’ll almost certainly land at the Gold Coast Suns next month as an academy selection.
The Gold Coast Suns are expected to draft Northern Territory youngster Jed Walter (right) who has been likened to Carlton’s goal-kicker Charlie Curnow.Credit: Getty
While 18-year-old knows “nothing’s set in stone until draft night”, he certainly seems excited about the prospect of becoming a Sun as one of three academy selections.
“Dimma [former Richmond premiership coach Damien Hardwick] is in there now,” he enthused.
“Just look at his resume. Three-time premiership coach, it’s pretty crazy. If I play under him, that would be unreal.
“I think it’s really exciting times for the Goldie. I think they’re a good chance to have a crack at it in September [next year].”
The Suns have a wealth of academy talent for the taking this year: Walter; ruckman Ethan Read, considered a top-10 player; and, midfielder Jake Rogers, rated in the top 20. Will Graham is another in the mix.
They are the reason the club has been willing to offload earlier draft picks at AFL trade period to build a war chest of picks later in the draft. Those picks will be used secure the academy players should rival clubs make a bid for them at the draft.
The canny strategy will reap huge rewards if Walter proves to be as good as Carlton’s two-time Coleman medallist Curnow, the player he is so often compared to.
“He’s just about a replica of Charlie, looks like he’s come out of the same mould,” AFL talent ambassador and draft guru Kevin Sheehan said.
Walter has similar curly hair to Curnow and frame of almost identical dimensions at the same age, and says he’s flattered to be likened to the AFL’s glamour forward.
“I love Curnow … I try to pick things out of his game and put them into mine,” he said.
“I mean, just love the way he goes about it. And same height as well. And I think we play pretty similar. So yeah, he’s definitely one that I’ve taken a close eye on.”
Sheehan said the similarities extended to their playing styles, including the way they both launch themselves at the ball in the air in pursuit of pack marks.
“He [Walter] has got that freakish ability to really track [the ball in] the air that Charlie Curnow has. and when it hits the deck, Jed’s so agile as well, he’s quick ... he gets down and hunts the footy or the opponent if they get it. He’s a really exciting player.”
Walter, 195 centimetres tall, is widely considered as one of the top five players in the draft, his reputation enhanced by the starring role he played to help the Allies’ win this year’s national championships.
Curnow’s career blossomed in 2022 and 2023 with selection as a forward in the AFL’s All-Australian team, while at the same time Walter was selected as an under-18 All-Australian centre-half forward.
Sheehan said Walter was up there in talent with likely No.1 pick Reid, noting the pair were the only two prospects to earn back-to-back selections in the national team as 17 and 18-year-olds.
“That’s probably the highest reward you can get as an underage player,” said Sheehan, suspecting that Walter had not drawn as much media attention because he was essentially locked away to the Gold Coast as an academy recruit.
The Suns, Sydney, Greater Western Sydney and Brisbane all have academy programs aimed at luring and developing talented young athletes from the northern states, where rugby codes dominate, to Australian rules. In return, they get priority access to the players they develop through the draft and can choose to match any bids made rival clubs for them.
Walter said the academy program had allowed him to see first-hand how the Suns AFL players trained and conducted themselves, and the close attention he’d paid to key-position players Ben King, Jack Lukosius and Levi Casboult had enhanced his development.
“All the boys are really good and give us good feedback,” he said.
The hulking Jed Walter would possibly challenge Harley Reid as the No.1 pick at this year’s draft if the Gold Coast didn’t already have dibs on him.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
“And I’m lucky enough to spend some time in the team meetings as well. So, we know what it’s like and what the AFL consists of once you get into the right system.”
By going to the same club as fellow draftees he’s already developed good relationships with at the club’s academy, Walter reasons he will settle in at the highest level quicker and more easily.
Gold Coast have already traded their prized pick 4, after finishing 15th on the ladder this year, to the Western Bulldogs for three first-round draft picks to help bolster their hand to match bids on their academy prospects.
However, not everyone in the AFL is happy that the Gold Coast has this access to such a pool of talented prospects.
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson lamented the Suns’ prized draft hand, which comes courtesy of a previous assistance package given to the club, providing them access to three high picks in this year’s draft via their academy.
He voiced his opinion in late August, ahead of North Melbourne’s round-24 match against Gold Coast, and a month before the AFL confirmed his club would receive its own assistance package. The Roos won that game by 35 points effectively forfeiting their hold on the No.1 draft pick – expected to be used on Victorian Harley Reid.
The Roos’ will now be armed with three extra end-of-first-round picks over the next two drafts.
“The bottom line is that North Melbourne are where they are because they’ve been the most poorly performed team in the competition for the last four years,” Clarkson said in August.
“The whole idea of equalisation, for goodness sake, the league put in some things several years ago to equalise for the Gold Coast Suns and give them a better opportunity, including getting Darwin as a zone and academy access to their [the Northern Territory’s] players and [concessions that led to] (Matt) Rowell and (Noah) Anderson going to their club.”
Walter knows his place at the Suns won’t be assured until the club calls out his name on draft night, but is optimistic about the club’s prospects, given at least three talented youngsters on their way to the club, and they’ll have a new (veteran) coach to guide them.
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