Top AFL Draft prospect Dylan Patterson on choosing between NRL and AFL, family background and academy critics
After his first competitive game of rugby league at age 14, two NRL clubs came knocking for Dylan Patterson’s signature. Here’s why he turned the down in favour of the AFL’s Gold Coast Suns.
All it took was one under-15 game for Dylan Patterson to receive two NRL contract offers.
In 2022, 14-year-old Patterson turned up to Palm Currumbin Eagles ahead of the season wanting to give rugby league a crack after dabbling in the code in primary school.
The speed demon already had a bright future in Aussie rules after picking it up through his dad when he was five.
Now a likely top-five pick in this year’s draft, with a rival bid likely to come as early as Richmond, the Suns Academy star knew it might be his last opportunity to try out rugby league before things got serious.
“I was in the Suns Academy, just trying to suss out what I wanted,” Patterson told this masthead.
“I got to year nine, I was like well, I want to try something before I have to lock in the footy and that’s when I want to enjoy being able to do what I want.
“The biggest thing for me was to have fun. Like, I didn’t want to take anything too seriously, I just wanted to keep enjoying it while I had the opportunity to.”
The Eagles’ under-15 coach that year Nick Daley recalls the raw and athletic Patterson arriving that pre-season.
“He pretty much just showed up, no one sort of knew who he was,” Daley said.
“He’s like, ‘Played AFL my whole life, just want to give footy (rugby league) a crack’. Sort of seemed like he’d been going alright at AFL.
“Obviously, he went alright (in rugby league).”
Patterson ended up in the fullback spot over some other quality players and took the competition by storm, wowing onlookers with terrific tries and spectacular individual plays each and every week.
In Daley’s eyes, Patterson’s rare debut was like a league convert kicking 10 goals in Aussie rules.
“He was just lightning fast. He had a fair bit to learn, but just his natural ability,” Daley said.
“He was at full back and you give him space, no one would catch him. He was just learning the game as well.
“So there was a lot of individual brilliant tries. There was a lot of, ‘How did he do that?’
“A high kick up out wide and Dylan would come from back over the top of them, because he can jump and catch and score.
“He pretty much went on that whole year, like he’d score two or three tries every game just off natural ability. He was just out there having fun, really. But it was just a step above pretty much the whole competition.”
Patterson made such an impression that two Queensland NRL clubs came to the table with contracts right away.
That’s tough for any 14-year-old to turn down, but Patterson was well aware it came with great responsibility.
READ MORE: THE SIX CLUBS WITH THE MOST RIDING ON THIS YEAR’S DRAFT
“I played one game and I got two contract offers off my first game,” Patterson said.
“Rugby league’s a lot different in Queensland. A lot of people were watching what you’re doing. So local levels at that age, people are watching.
“Obviously it’s pretty hard to say no to stuff like that, they’re pretty much offering free coin. But at the end of the day, it’s never really free.
“You’re always expected to do something for it, and that’s just not my intention. I just wanted to play for fun and with my mates, and for them it’s not a lot of money to be putting in your face. But you’re committed to them, and they expect stuff out of you from it.”
Patterson met with the Brisbane Broncos, Dolphins and Gold Coast Titans at first before a couple more Sydney clubs came calling, with four clubs in total offering him deals.
Over that year it became abundantly clear that Patterson also had a big future in rugby league.
“Not all of them were full contract offers. Some of them were just meetings, some of them wanted to have meetings but I sort of said no,” Patterson said.
“The first few were like, ‘Oh, it’s nice being able to see what you’re doing is getting recognised’. But there was no want to commit to anything really. I just wanted to still play AFL and enjoy AFL, and then also play rugby league and enjoy rugby league.
“So I stopped picking up the phone when clubs were calling, and I just made it known that I wasn’t really interested in committing to anything at the moment, but that I’d reach out if I did, and they all understood.”
Daley told Patterson that he could continue to enjoy himself without having to make the call that would shape his future.
“There’s always an AFL player who’s just really good at footy (rugby league) So I talked to him and said he didn’t have to make a decision, he just wanted to go out and try it out, just for something different,” Daley said.
“But then obviously when he got older, the next year, it really started ramping up. He sort of had to choose one because NRL clubs wanted him.”
Patterson opted to play school rugby league in 2023 at Palm Beach Currumbin High School rather than club level and his rapid rise continued, helping his team to a premiership win.
He also starred in the QAFL for Palm Beach Currumbin Lions that same year, named in the best in five of his eight matches.
“It became pretty hard to choose between the both, because I was so raw at rugby league, but I was going so well,” Patterson said.
“And I was enjoying it so much and obviously I come to a point where I had to commit to something.”
For Patterson, his childhood passion and greatest inspiration, his father Ian, saw him choose Aussie rules.
“Eventually I just come back to why I fell in love with footy, and everything my dad’s done for me to get to this position has just made it a bit easier to make that decision,” Patterson said.
“I started playing footy when I was five, my dad got me into it. My dad actually got me to take my first overhead mark the day before I turned five. So he was pretty keen on getting me there. It took us about a couple hours, but he was pretty happy.”
It’s a crossroads call that should edge Gold Coast closer to their first premiership, with the U18 All-Australian blessed with the dash and dare that the modern game is built on.
The 183cm defender-midfielder believes his rugby league stint – and the athletics he did when he was younger – has him better placed for his budding AFL career, just like Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury’s renowned basketball background.
“Everyone should experience playing another sport, because I feel like it can never hurt. Because you can always bring benefits from each thing to another,” Patterson said.
“For example, Scott Pendlebury with basketball, he sees the game in slow motion.
“I also did sprinting as well – as you can tell, I’m pretty fast. It helps being able to be able to pull in different attributes from different sports.
“I think it’s definitely improved my tackling and definitely improved my vision as well, and then when I played rugby league, footy also helped it. I can catch the ball better, kick the ball, I can see the game.”
UNIQUE BACKGROUND
Getting drafted will be just reward for Patterson and his father Ian.
“My dad’s very important to me. I’ve lived with him my whole life. And he just does everything for me. I wouldn’t be here without him to be honest,” Patterson said.
“He knows how much he means to me, and he’s obviously the most important person in my life. If I succeed, then realistically, he gets a reward as well, because he’s done all the hard work as well. It’s not just me.”
While they know each other inside out, his father’s background remans a mystery, with Ian set to get a DNA test to explore his ancestry.
“My dad’s father actually was an orphan and everyone thought my dad’s father was Indigenous, but he couldn’t know because the orphanage burnt down with all the papers,” Patterson said.
“So it’s pretty stiff, so I guess you can’t really tell.
“But a lot of people would assume Indigenous and I feel like I play like Nasiah – pretty fast, sort of giving off all the obvious indicators.”
There is limited record of VFL/AFL players of Indonesian descent, one of them being former six-game Footscray player Peter Castrikum, who was born in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Bandung, Indonesia in 1943 to Dutch parents.
“I’m pretty sure there’s none,” Patterson chuckled.
Patterson travelled to Indonesia in 2022 for a wedding of his mother’s friend, seeing the mainland and also seeing the sights of Bali.
“It’s just a lot different. And I feel like people don’t realise how different it is compared to a pretty civil country like Australia,” Patterson said.
He hopes he can inspire more multicultural people to take up the game.
“I feel like it’d be good to have that out there, that you can be from anywhere and play. I think it’s not about Indonesia necessarily,” Patterson said.
“You don’t have to be an Aussie, and you don’t have to be growing up here to play here. I’ve grown up here, but you don’t have to be, you can be from anywhere.
“If you have the ability and you have the work ethic, then give it a crack.”
MESSAGE TO ACADEMY CRITICS
Patterson backs himself on the field, and off it he isn’t afraid to speak his mind.
While AFL footballers in the system often become media trained robots – some even as draftees – Patterson is a breath of fresh air.
Asked about the criticism around the Gold Coast Suns Academy, Patterson takes a big picture view, knowing first-hand about the lure of rugby league in the sunshine state.
“I feel like the way they develop, you can’t really beat it and it gives you a big advantage,” Patterson said.
“But at the same time, they’re the ones putting all the work in. They put time into players that don’t end up playing for them as well, but people don’t say anything about that.
“So at the same time, I understand why people get upset about it, but they just sort of don’t realise the full picture.
“The AFL is a business, it’s trying to grow in the northern areas and trying to become the biggest sport in every state, not just Victoria and South Australia and WA. For it to grow in the northern areas, it needs some success, and if they’re able to get success by academies, then let it happen.
“It’s nice seeing people you know and go up with make it, because then it sort of just brings everyone a bit closer together and puts a good name on AFL just in general. So I feel like if people can get their head around the fact that ‘Aw, they’re getting good players for cheap as, but it’s growing in Queensland’, then maybe they might sort of understand a bit more as to why it’s happening.”
The Suns’ 2025 academy crop is further proof that Aussie rules is booming up on the Gold Coast.
Burleigh gun Zeke Uwland is expected to receive a bid from West Coast at pick two, while Richmond is tipped to bid on Patterson shortly after.
Burleigh ball-magnet Beau Addinsall and Southport smooth-mover Jai Murray could also attract first-round bids.
Broadbeach utility Koby Coulson is set to enter calculations later on, and his teammate Kalani White, son of Melbourne great Jeff, also came through the Suns Academy, but will join Melbourne as a father-son prospect.
“Right now, this is the ultimate high. They did all the work to develop us as players, and now they’re getting the reward from it,” Patterson said.
“If other people want to complain about that, then I feel like they should start trying to develop their own players a bit more.
“But they put so much effort into us, and it’s good to see them get a bit of a success out of the boys that got drafted the other year and obviously picked up Leo last year and hopefully get a good haul this year.”
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