Interesting to see if we chase after any of these 17 y.o. in this year's GWS mini-draft?
West is bestBy Jason Phelan
Wed 20 Jun, 2012WEST Australian pair Jack Martin and Jesse Hogan are leading the field of candidates eligible to be selected at the second and final Greater Western Sydney mini-draft that will take place at the end of the season.
The mini-draft is part of the package of concessions granted to the Giants by the AFL to build their list in its formative years.
GWS was given four picks over two years to be used on eligible 17-year-old players that must be on-traded to other clubs in return for national draft selections and/or players.
Three rounds into the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, Martin and Hogan are the standouts of this year's eligible group according to one AFL recruiter, with SA's Dwayne Wilson, Vic Metro's Josh Kelly and Vic Country midfielder Matt Crouch also well in contention.
Crouch is the brother of Brad Crouch who joined Adelaide after the SA club traded its 2011 first-round pick and a first-round compensation pick to GWS in return for the North Ballarat youngster and Norwood defender Luke Brown.
Highly rated WA product Jaeger O'Meara was the other player taken under the two-year scheme designed to help the Giants build their playing list. Gold Coast landed O'Meara after trading two first-round selections for the rights to the first pick at the mini-draft, which took place at the end of trade week.
GWS held over the remaining two picks it was granted by the AFL under the scheme until this year with Martin and Hogan catching the eye of talent scouts.
"Hogan has had a massive impact on the championships to date," AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan said of the 193cm key position prospect.
"He's athletic, he takes contested marks, he hits the scoreboard and he can play down in defence as well.
"He's super-competitive, aggressive, and looks to win that contested footy. He's really lit up WA's forward line.
"Martin (a 184cm midfielder) missed the first game, but has shone in the past two. He's just so athletic, good in the air and quick over the ground. He kicks goals and can play in virtually any position on the ground.
"He's got a little bit of weight to put on, but he's an exciting player."
While both are considered excellent prospects, another AFL recruiter felt the bidding for the remaining two picks "might come off a little bit" compared to the frenzy created as clubs scrambled to come up with a package to satisfy the demands of the Giants to secure O'Meara and Crouch.
Players need to have been born in 1994 or earlier to be eligible for this year's national draft, but this scheme allows for players whose birthdays fall between January 1 and April 30, 1995, to be claimed by a club with one of the two remaining picks GWS has to trade away.
The Giants can't keep Martin, Hogan or any other player who nominates to be in the mini-draft pool by the August 1 deadline. That didn't stop GWS making a bold bid to hang onto O'Meara last year with an intricate trade deal that was ultimately disallowed by the AFL.
Despite joining the Suns and the Crows respectively, O'Meara and Crouch are too young to play AFL footy this year and the same will go for the two players taken at this year's mini-draft, which will take place 10 minutes after the conclusion of trade week on October 26.
"O'Meara and Crouch were outstanding [under-age] players at last year's championships and the deals were done for them to join AFL clubs sooner rather than later," Sheehan said.
"In the finish those clubs regarded them as first-round choices and rightly so. They went out and got them a year ahead of schedule so they could put some conditioning work into them.
"It's an added bonus that will allow them to get the sort of start that David Swallow got a year earlier at the Gold Coast Suns. We saw the benefit the Suns got with the terrific season that he had at AFL level."
Jack Martin is one of the favourites for the GWS 'mini-draft'
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/138983/default.aspx
