AFL mid-season draft 2025: Richmond VFL’s Tom McCarthy has clubs circling

From the third tier of the VAFA and second division of the Southern League, Tom McCarthy has enjoyed a remarkable rise to be on the cusp of an AFL career.

Richmond VFL’s latest prospect has travelled the road less taken in football to become an AFL mid-season draft aspirant.

No under-age representative teams or the elite Coates Talent League or club academies were part of Tom McCarthy’s journey.

He was many miles from the established pathway; the skills that have brought him into the eyes of recruiters were developed on suburban grounds, first in the South Metro juniors, then the Victorian amateurs and the Southern league.

The Tiger whose head turns to “T Mac’’ was in Premier C section of the VAFA and second division of Southern, their standards well shy of the state league.

Yet McCarthy, 24, has handled the jump with aplomb since making Richmond’s VFL list and playing 15 games in 2024.

His pace, power and poise across halfback have AFL clubs circling ahead of the May 28 mid-season rookie draft.

Some have already interviewed him and others plan to do the same.

“It’s pretty exciting for something like this to happen,’’ McCarthy says.

He calls himself a “late bloomer’’ who through his teenage years preferred to play cricket and basketball.

Football became his focus when he was 17.

McCarthy’s emergence has surprised few of his former teammates at Old Mentonians, who unfortunately dropped out of football after winning a Thirds premiership last season.

Tom McCarthy lays a tackle during a game against the AFL Academy in April.

Tom McCarthy playing for Highett in the Southern league.

McCarthy won OM’s last best and fairest as a divisional club in 2022.

“He took the piss that year, to be honest,’’ teammate Comrey Edgeworth says.

“As a tall, athletic mid, he was sort of like (Hawthorn’s) Will Day. He shook off tackles. He was explosive. He’d burst out of stoppage, take a couple of bounces and either kick a goal or hit up someone.’’

McCarthy joined Old Mentonians from Cheltenham Panthers juniors in 2018, kicking off in the Under 19s with a bunch of mates from Cheltenham Secondary College.

He was playing in the senior team the following year, getting half-a-dozen mentions in the best as a lightly-framed wingman.

When local football resumed from Covid for half a season in 2021, the right-footer, bigger and stronger, moved into the midfield and quickly became one of his team’s most important players.

“You could always tell he had something the local footballer didn’t really have and that he should be playing at a higher level, whether that was higher than C grade of the VAFA or the VFL’’ Edgeworth says.

“You’d think, ‘This guy is too good for where he is at the moment’.’’

Former Old Mentonians coach Simon Cormie says ex-AFL player Mark “Mick’’ Dwyer, an assistant coach, had “huge wraps’’ on McCarthy.

It became a running joke at the club that McCarthy was Dwyer’s pet player.

“From day one, he (Dwyer) said, ‘This guy could be anything and we’ve got to get him in the midfield’,’’ Cormie says.

“He was clean by hand and foot so he was always nice on the wing, but he could impact more as a goalkicking midfielder. He was so damaging.’’

Tom McCarthy has rocketed into contention for the mid-season draft.

Old Mentonians fell into recess ahead of 2023, leaving McCarthy’s heart heavy for a club that gave him his start in senior football.

“It was a really sad story, to be honest. Great club,’’ he says.

He followed strength and conditioning coach Jarrad Kay to Southern league Division 2’s Highett, playing under Clint Eiensiedel.

That year he finished second in the best and fairest, nosed out by one vote, and gave two outstanding finals performances. In one of them he had almost 40 possessions and kicked three goals, matching an earlier home-and-away effort.

“A little bit, yeah,’’ experienced local coach Eiensiedel replies when asked if McCarthy’s development into a draft prospect has surprised him.

He says there’s “such a big difference’’ between Southern second division and the VFL.

But he says McCarthy had above-average ability and was keen to take his football further.

“He’s a professional, and he’s pretty driven about what he wants to do,’’ Eiensiedel says.

McCarthy not only played football at Highett, he worked there, as the assistant manager of the diary department of Woolworths, working “with all the cold stuff’’. He’s now with a marketing company, where the temperature is more to his liking.

The courage from Tom McCarthy sets up a goal for Liam Fawcett 👏 pic.twitter.com/G0a9LgM065

— Richmond VFL (@RichmondVFL) August 18, 2024

*****

It was Jarrad Kay – now Richmond VFL’s high performance manager – who opened a door for Tom McCarthy at Tigerland.

To go through it required patience and persistence.

McCarthy was taken aback at his new training standards.

“I’ll never forget the first few drills I did — I was shitting myself,’’ he says with a laugh.

“Just the pace. Jesus Christ, the ball got to me so quickly. It took me a month or two to adjust. It was a huge jump. I was used to running around the old blokes at training at Highett.’’

McCarthy is charting a similar path to Western Bulldog Sam Davidson.

He had to wait until February for the offer of a contract from Richmond VFL operations manager and now AFL recruiter Oliver Grant. He got it at the same time as another hopeful from local ranks, Sam “Doc’’ Davidson, now burning up and down AFL wings with the Western Bulldogs.

“That’s a cool story,’’ McCarthy says. “That made us close. Our stories are similar.’’

Between them they played 32 games, Davidson making his debut in Round 3 and his pal in Round 6, against Coburg.

McCarthy thought he could handle the physicality of the VFL — “Towards the end at Highett I was getting bashed every week, copping a tag!’’ — but the pace of games and the tactics and structures were something else. He brought himself up to speed.

“You grow as a player when you’ve got good players around you, I reckon,’’ he says.

Tom McCarthy only earned a contract with Richmond in February last year.

McCarthy on the track at Punt Road.

McCarthy started in the midfield. But as more AFL-listed players came into the team, coach Steve Morris pushed him to halfback.

He had never played in defence. “I had to learn the role real quick,’’ he says. It turned out that going back took his football forward.

This year he’s averaged 22.3 possessions from his six matches, setting out his stall in the first round with 24 touches and 10 marks against Coburg at Beaconsfield.

In Richmond’s Round 6 win over Box Hill Hawks, he had 22 disposals, seven tackles and seven marks.

“Played as a halfback but entered most centre bounces for us. We saw how damaging he can be with his feet and his ability to drive his legs,’’ Tigers coach Jake Batchelor commented on the club website.

McCarthy says he’s adopted a “take-the-game-on’’ approach this season.

“That’s been my motto, use your skills and not be afraid,’’ he says. “Maybe that’s why I’ve got a bit of interest.’’