AFL Draft 2023: The rise of the unstoppable and ‘unique’ Zane Duursma

There’s a reason why this young talent is a potential top five pick, in fact there’s plenty of reasons. See why club’s are talking so highly of Zane Duursma here.

He doesn’t yet have his own signature goal celebration, like older brother Xavier’s famous arrow.

But in a football sense, Zane Duursma possesses as many weapons as a small army.

Described by talent scouts as a “really unique” player in this year’s AFL draft pool, there is little that Duursma can’t do.

Opposition sides in the Coates Talent League this season would put plenty of time into finding a way to limit his impact when preparing for games against Gippsland Power.

Few enjoyed even a mild level of success.

“He was never held goalless, even though most of the attention from the opposition goes to your No. 1 kid,” Gippsland talent manager Scott McDougal said.

“They plan around, ‘How do we stop Duursma?’ It’s nearly an impossible task because he runs quicker, jumps higher and is cleaner than 90 per cent of the competition.

“He can be death by a thousand cuts when he works his way through a game or he can just jump on you and kick quick goals.

“He’s a really professional kid who just shows up ready to get it done every day.”

Zane Duursma dominated for Gippsland Power this season despite receiving plenty of opposition attention. Picture: Getty Images

Duurmsa trained with Melbourne last summer as part of the AFL Academy program, where his mentor was midfielder Jack Viney.

The boy from Foster — just north of Wilson’s Promontory — had entered this season hoping to similarly serve as a midfielder who could rotate forward.

However, it was quickly established that he was a player who would be most damaging forward of centre.

“Now that I look back on it, I think playing more forward is the right idea,” Duursma said.

“I think that half forward hit-up role is my go-to role and I think that’s hopefully where I’ll begin my AFL career.”

While they were dazzled by some of Duurmsa’s tricks, recruiters questioned his consistency at times in the first half of this season.

Few knew that he copped a bad corky during the AFL Academy game against Port Adelaide’s SANFL side in Gather Round and had also battled a chest infection through the early rounds of the season.

“I was struggling to breathe out on the ground sometimes,” Duursma said.

“But it came good in a couple of weeks.”

By the time Vic Country’s final match of the under-18 national championships against Vic Metro rolled around in mid-July, the 191cm forward had well and truly hit his straps.

Among many of the country’s top draft prospects — including Harley Reid and Nick Watson — he was a clear standout across half-forward at Princes Park that day.

Duursma logged 22 disposals, 10 marks, 15 score involvements, six score assists and kicked four goals to spearhead Vic Country to a 31-point win over its arch rival.

Champion Data had Duursma down for 191 SuperCoach ranking points, with the next best performer on the ground being Vic Country teammate Finn O’Sullivan with just 115 points.

“In the biggest game of the year he was the best player,” AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan said.

“When it was on the line, he came out in that third quarter and just blew the game apart.

“He comes from nowhere at times and jumps straight across the front of the pack, from the angle. Not many can do that.

“He does some very unusual things at times that are freakish. That includes his goals and when he’s on-song he’ll kick multiples in a row.”

Zane Duursma was best on ground for Vic Country in the biggest game of the year. Picture: Getty Images

Known to teammates simply as ‘Duurs’, this year’s performances have not come as much of a surprise to recruiters who have long had him on their radar.

Duursma kicked three goals from 12 disposals on debut for Gippsland Power in early 2021 — aged just 15.

That same year, he booted 10 goals across four senior games for his hometown club Foster in the Mid Gippsland Football League.

“He has got a serious point of difference to a lot of other players in this draft,” one recruiter said.

“He’s got that ability to be a Bailey Fristch-type player when he goes forward. He’s hard to beat in the air and beats you on the ground.”

Duursma himself looks up to two-time Brownlow Medal winner Nat Fyfe, but others have likened him to former Port Adelaide and Hawthorn champion Shaun Burgoyne.

Burgoyne — who was affectionately nicknamed ‘Silk’ — started his career as a high-impact player at both ends of the ground before pushing into the midfield later in his career.

Duursma has scope to eventually do the same.

At the national draft combine earlier this month, Duursma placed second in the running vertical jump, while also ranking above-average in the 20m sprint with a time of 3.055 seconds.

After the first day of the combine, he made a quick trip home to Gippsland to attend the Power’s awards night and collected the Peter Francis Best and Fairest.

“We just think he’s got an innate ability to keep changing gears and we haven’t found where those gears stop,” McDougal said.

“After the last game of the under-18 national championships, he just kept putting exclamation marks on his name.”

Zane Duursma is quick and agile and can seriously jump. Picture: Getty Images

Duursma’s two older siblings — Xavier and Yasmin — have already made the big time in football.

Xavier was drafted to Port Adelaide with pick 18 in the 2018 national draft and is now at Essendon, while Yasmin found her way to the Power at pick 45 in the 2022 AFLW Draft.

Zane might just be the pick of a talented football family, shaping as a top-five selection this year.

Either North Melbourne (picks 2 and 3) or Hawthorn (pick 4) are expected to make sure of that.

“It’s going to be pretty cool to be the third one in the family,” Zane said.

“It’s really an honour.”

There could yet be a fourth draftee to come from the Duursma clan, too.

Younger brother Willem also impressed across six games for Gippsland Power this year, despite not being draft eligible until 2025.

Originally published as AFL Draft 2023: The rise of the unstoppable and ‘unique’ Zane Duursma