AFL Draft 2021 news: Combine results, latest updates and club selection whispers
Victorian draft prospects have lacked exposure this season and Covid has forced another event to be cancelled. Meanwhile, a top prospect has had a setback.
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Victorian metropolitan-based draft prospects have been dealt another cruel blow in a difficult season with the hotly-anticipated combine testing day cancelled by the league.
More than 30 youngsters from Melbourne were set to show off their athletic traits at the Holden Centre on Sunday, most of those starved of opportunities to prove themselves in another Covid afflicted season.
The AFL has opted to take a “cautious approach” due to the current Covid climate in Victoria, which on Thursday recorded the highest number of daily cases of any Australian state since the start of the pandemic, with many potential draftees tackling school Year 12 exams in the coming weeks.
The league is hopeful of holding a Vic Metro combine before the national draft on November 24.
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Draft hopefuls from Victorian country regions had the opportunity to test in Bendigo last Friday.
NAB League clubs based in Melbourne last took the field on August 1.
The standout Vic Metro prospect, Collingwood father-son and potential No.1 pick Nick Daicos, has played just five NAB League matches for the Oakleigh Chargers in the past two seasons and a single under-19 Challenge match against Vic Country.
Fellow father-son talent Sam Darcy, tied to the Western Bulldogs, was set to miss the testing day with a minor stress reaction in his foot.
Darcy is expected to be sidelined for just a few weeks after the setback.
The 204cm contested marking forward, the son of Bulldogs legend Luke, is the leading key position player in the pool and is expected to receive a top-three bid on draft night.
The AFL plans to stage a training session for Victorian draft prospects in November – as it did last year in front of a host of recruiters in Cragieburn.
Brother of Saint blitzes Vic Country combine
Draft prospect Sam Butler has strengthened his first-round claims by blitzing the Vic Country draft combine on Friday in Bendigo.
Butler, the brother of St Kilda goalsneak Dan, recorded the fastest 20m sprint time (2.970-seconds) and finished second in both the running and standing vertical jump tests.
A 184cm midfielder-forward, Butler shares his older brother’s speed and manic defensive pressure but has the scope to be used as a centre bounce midfielder, spending more time at the coalface for the GWV Rebels later in the season.
Rebels coach David Loader said his results, which prompted “a couple” of clubs to touch base about Butler, solidified an impressive season for the explosive talent.
“This probably solidifies what Sam is capable of and puts a tick to the end of the season … It shores up that he’s a really nice player,” Loader told News Corp.
“I had fairly high expectations of Sam because I know how talented the boy he is.
“When he moved from playing forward into the midfield this year, he gave it a different look with his ability to break away from contested footy.
“(His) biggest positive is his versatility … I could see him playing footy at the next level in a number of different positions.”
Murray Bushrangers defender Tom Brown, the son of former Cat Paul and sister of Geelong AFLW gun Millie, was another standout on the testing day.
The 186cm defender pipped Butler by a centimetre to take out the standing vertical jump and finished third in the 20m sprint.
He has impressed with his intercepting ability and speed across five NAB League matches this season, but the talented prospect does not qualify for father-son status, with Paul playing 84 games for Geelong in the 90s.
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Clearance specialist Mitch Knevitt finished second in the 2km trial trial and it was revealed on Thursday by the NAB League that he also recorded the second fastest 20m sprint time.
The hulking 193cm midfielder finished his Geelong Falcons season with a bang, generating 30 disposals, 14 contested possessions, six marks and a whopping 150 SuperCoach points per game across his last three matches.
Butler’s Rebels teammate Josh Gibcus also tested strongly with the 195cm intercept defender recording the top running vertical jump (89cm) and a 3.04-second 20m sprint.
However, the leading key-backman in the pool was unable to properly compete against his 95cm personal best, with weather conditions forcing the event to be conducted under cover.
We can confirm that we have missed some data from the Draft Combine events that were held in Bendigo for Vic Country invitees last Friday...
— NAB League (@NABLeague) October 6, 2021
*Mitch Knevitt ran 2.976 seconds for the 20-metre sprint.
This was the 2nd fastest of the day! Well done Mitch ðŸ‘#NABLeague#GenNextpic.twitter.com/oHR1PxZEo7
“He basically jumped over the height stick on the first one. It was done under a little awning due to the weather conditions,” Loader, who attended the testing day, explained.
“There was a support beam there and we were joking and said, ‘just hit that, because you’ll be hitting the roof.’”
“He’s got an incredible vertical leap, whether it’s standing still or getting a run at things.”
Bendigo Pioneers midfielder Cooper Hamilton showed off his elite endurance base with a time of 5:48 in the 2km time trial.
Jai Serong, brother of Fremantle Rising Star winner Caleb, finished third in the running vertical jump discipline.
Loader said potential top-five selection Ben Hobbs “didn’t set the world on fire” with his results but was solid across the board.
“Ben’s one of those athletes that is really competent at everything … Ben is just such a good, solid, reliable player. He’s a really safe bet I would have thought for the draft,” he said.
Seventeen prospects tested at the combine in total on Friday — nine of those from the Rebels program.
VIC COUNTRY DRAFT COMBINE RESULTS
Find out the top three in every event
20m SPRINT (sec)
1. Sam Butler (GWV Rebels) 2.970
2. Mitch Knevitt (Geelong Falcons) 2.976*
2. Tom Brown (Murray Bushrangers) 2.983
3. Kai Lohmann (GWV Rebels) 2.986
Knevitt’s 20m sprint time was not included in the initial results.
2km TIME TRIAL(min:sec)
1. Cooper Hamilton (Bendigo Pioneers) 5:48
2. Hamish Sinnott (GWV Rebels) 5:58
3. Mitchell Knevitt (Geelong Falcons) 6.18
STANDING VERTICAL JUMP (cm)
1. Tom Brown (Murray Bushrangers) 72
2. Sam Butler (GWV Rebels) 71
3. Josh Gibcus (GWV Rebels) 68
RUNNING VERTICAL JUMP (cm)
1. Josh Gibcus (GWV Rebels) 89
2. Sam Butler (GWV Rebels) 87
3. Jai Serong (Gippsland Power) 86
*Due to inclement weather the jumps had to be conducted under an awning. Josh Gibcus jumped higher than the top of the yardstick/awning (his personal best is 95cm).
Will North make Pies pay up for Daicos?
- Marc McGowan
Opposition recruiters are tipping North Melbourne to next month make South Adelaide phenom Jason Horne-Francis the dux of this year’s AFL draft class.
The 2021 draft is one of the most fascinating in years, given two of the other top three prospects – Nick Daicos and Sam Darcy – are linked to Collingwood and Western Bulldogs, respectively, as father-son picks.
Only two of the 11 AFL recruiters the Herald Sun spoke to said they would place a bid on Daicos and/or Darcy at No.1, with both talent scouts rating Daicos the best player in it.
But most believed Horne-Francis’ blistering form throughout the SANFL finals, particularly his 24-disposal, three-goal, 11-clearance preliminary final effort, had shot him to the top.
Others struggled to split Horne-Francis and Daicos, including one saying not being able to watch the latter at the national championships or in an equivalent senior competition worked against him.
The feeling was Daicos was capable of similar performances if he had played in the SANFL.
Horne-Francis told the Herald Sun this week he had set himself the challenge of being the first picked, and several recruiters said he was the type of personality who would appreciate that honour.
This year’s scenario follows Adelaide bidding last year on the Bulldogs’ Next Generation Academy graduate Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at No.1 before grabbing South Australian Riley Thilthorpe after the Dogs matched.
The Crows’ decision owed to more than making the Western Bulldogs accountable.
Their intel suggested the Dogs shared an interest with them in small forward James Rowe later in the draft, so by placing a bid on Ugle-Hagan it forced them to use most of their draft points to match.
That meant the Bulldogs didn’t re-enter the draft until pick 55, with Adelaide selecting Rowe at No.38.
The Magpies are prepared to match any bid for Daicos, who has already agreed to a four-year contract rather than the usual two seasons for a national draftee.
There is a good chance the son of club great Peter Daicos and brother of current Collingwood footballer Josh will tumble to No.3 if, as expected, the Kangaroos select Horne-Francis first.
That would be a major win for the Pies, because they would have to use only 1787 draft points to match the bid rather than 2400 if North calls Daicos’ name No.1 overall.
Those points are after the 20 per cent, first-round discount is applied.
Collingwood has almost 1600 points from its draft hand of picks 36, 41, 43 and 48, but still has to broker trades for Patrick Lipinski and Nathan Kreuger, who want to cross to the Magpies.
They can go into draft points deficit if required, but that would result in their first pick next year sliding down the order to compensate.
Collingwood traded its 2021 first-round pick to the Giants last year in anticipation of drafting Daicos, but the club’s tumble to 17th on the ladder was a shock.
GWS has the second pick from that deal and its national recruiting manager, Adrian Caruso, is on record saying he would likely bid on key-position talent Darcy before Daicos on a needs basis.
That same logic is why recruiters believe the Giants will target 200cm ruckman Mac Andrew or key defender Josh Gibcus rather than the next-best midfielder, Finn Callaghan.
Andrew came through Melbourne’s Next Generation Academy, but the Demons can’t match a bid on him unless he falls outside the first 20 picks, because of new rules introduced this year.
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Originally published as AFL Draft 2021 news: Combine results, latest updates and club selection whispers
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