Draft prospects ready for AFLBy Jason Phelan | Fri 02 October, 2009
THE 2009 NAB AFL Draft Camp is drawing to a close and the main message emerging from the four days of testing is that these boys are ready to step right into an AFL environment.
The exhaustive testing honed over the 16 years of the camp's existence doesn't leave much to the imagination and AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan is delighted with the levels this year's class has been able to reach.
"Dr David Pyne, who oversees our physical testing, tells us it's as good as any group we've had physically," Sheehan said on Friday.
"In fact their endurance is better than any other group. So as athletes we're very happy that these guys are ready to join the AFL.
"The average of the beep test was almost 14, and that's up almost three shuttles of the beep test [average]. That's significant, so the boys are coming better prepared than ever before; they have great motors and the skin folds are down."
Several draft hopeful have greatly enhanced their chances of getting picked up by an AFL club with performances that put them inside the top 10 results of all time.
None more so than Murray Bushranger Brayden Norris, who dug deep in the gruelling beep test conducted on an unseasonally warm Canberra day.
"He has equalled the best ever; he has equalled Jarryd McVeigh's 15-6," Sheehan said.
"What that does for Brayden, who'd had an injury-interrupted year, is it [makes recruiters say] 'hey let's go back and have a look at the vision of him playing'.
"Those that were uncertain will go back [and take a look] because there is something special there.
"Also for Ryan Bastinac to go home with a 15-1 beep test; well that's the score that Chris Judd did in 2001 so those sorts of figures are pretty important for the boys as they put an AFL face to their particular score."
The vertical leap always attracts a crowd of interested onlookers and while no one was able to break the long-standing record they put themselves in some elite company.
"James Craig with his standing vertical jump, he didn't beat Trent Croad, who is still out there with 83cm which was amazing way back in 1997," he said.
"Then Nic Naitanui last year did a 78cm, but James Craig and Sam Shaw were right up in the top five of all time; Craig with 76cm and Shaw with 75cm.
"Again that shows that they've got great athletic qualities. You'd call Craig an under-sized ruckman at 195cm, but with that sort of spring he can be the one that can do it in amongst some of the guys who might be three or four cm taller."
The agility test requires the athletes to negotiate five tightly-grouped columns over a twisting and turning course and East Fremantle's Kane Lucas led the way with 7.95 seconds.
"Kane Lucas and Andrew Hooper up in the top seven ever tested amongst all AFL players," Sheehan said.
"Hooper won the Larke Medal mid-year, he's only a 172cm defender/midfielder, but his athletic attributes were fantastic. His sprint speed was very good, his agility was very good and he's certainly one who has said 'pick me – give me a chance to play at AFL level."
Hooper also finished third in the 20m sprint testing with a time of 2.90s.
Jack Fitzpatrick of the Western Jets was one of the high achievers of the camp, which is surprising given he is a 201cm-tall ruck prospect. His crowning achievement came when he outlasted his smaller competitors to take out the repeat sprint test which sees the players do six 30m sprints one after the other.
Fitzpatrick's time of 23.91s put him ahead of the next best in Robbie Hicks at 24.04s.
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