IT’S the middle of September and the football season is over for the Calder Cannons, but a group of about 12 players continues to train three times a week at Highgate Reserve in Craigieburn.
Long, tough sessions under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning coach Steve Forcone are the order of the day.
For these players, it’s all about ensuring they’re in top condition for the first week of October and a shot of AFL fame in pre-draft try-outs, including the NAB AFL draft combine (formerly the draft camp), state screening sessions and the AFL ‘DraftStar’ camp.
Star at one of these and your stocks rise, along with the chances of being drafted to an AFL club on November 22.
Cannon midfielder Jonathan O’Rourke, who hails from the Gisborne Rookies, has been selected to take part in the draft combine.
Widely touted as a top 10 pick at next month’s AFL draft, the 18-year-old has been joining his 11 teammates three times a week to prepare for the physical grilling at the camp.
“I’m just trying to go there and have a consistent base in all the testing,” O’Rourke says. “We do gym stuff on the outside, but pretty much we’re doing three nights here and having a rest in between.”
The Cannons players aren’t alone. Around Melbourne, draft prospects from the TAC Cup teams are working just as hard, including a group of Western Jets players, among them Jake McKenzie. Originally from the Altona Vikings, McKenzie has seen his older brother Trent, a Gold Coast Suns player, go through it all before him
“Hopefully, all the hard work will pay off,” McKenzie says of his combine selection.
“I’m doing two running, three weights and three swimming sessions a week; it’s pretty full-on. I reckon I’m fitter now than I was preseason.”
Jets captain Ashlin Brown is preparing to show his wares at the state screening.
“Towards the end of the year, the training backed up as the games got more intense,” the Hoppers Crossing Warriors protege says. “We’re training harder, getting fit and trying to beat our times from the start of the year.”
Jets strength and conditioning coach Mathew Pell says this is the time for the players to shine.
“Obviously there was a large drop-off by the time we had finished the season,” he says.
“We really tried to adjust their physical preparation and keep that level of fitness and intensity up for what is the expectation at the national combine.
“We really had to challenge them with their energy system training and some interval-based training.”
Pell says many people don’t realise the work the players put in before the draft.
“These guys are walking into some pretty big contracts if they are potentially drafted. They have to be doing everything in their physical power to put their hand up.
“Unfortunately, the normal person going through at this particular age group just simply drops off in their training [at the end of the season] and has a good rest without addressing the long-term needs.
“If they don’t shine now, then realistically they’ve missed the boat to play AFL.”
Hitting the track isn’t the only thing on the minds of the players, particularly those studying for exams: they include Cannons and Macedon Cats star Lachie Plowman.
“During the year I found out I would be going to the draft combine which is pretty cool,” says Plowman, an athletic backman also tipped as a high draft pick. “It’s hard to fit school and training.
“At the start of the school year, I’ve had to concentrate on school, and training had to fit around that.
“As school is finishing up, I’ve been able to do a bit more fitness stuff and still study at the same time.”
The national draft combine at Etihad Stadium has the best 120 footballers invited to spend four days in the one place.
They stay together as a group and concentrate on one thing: football.
They are measured, weighed, medically tested and interviewed by the media and club recruiters before they even take the field.
Then the real testing begins; jumping, sprints, agility tests, ball skills, goal kicking, endurance running and the dreaded beep test.
Western Jets and Spotswood spearhead Spencer White has a point to prove at the combine, after originally missing out on selection.
“I was pretty disappointed not to get it,” he says after day two of the combine, “so I wanted to prove that I belong here by getting a good result. I was hoping to go all right on the jumps but didn’t know how I would go.”
White, who has been likened to Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin, topped the list for the running vertical jump with a leap of 100cm, only two centimetres short of the record held by AFL stars Nic Naitanui and Jared Brennan.
He also finished third in the standing vertical jump. Cannons best and fairest winner Rory Atkins is another to take part in the combine.
After the first two days, Atkins, a gun midfielder from Maribyrnong Park, was disappointed with his results.
“It’s good to finally get to this stage of the year and get together with the top 120 blokes from across Australia.
“So far I’ve been middle of the road with everything . . . not too good, but not too bad.
“I’ve had a couple of meetings with teams while I’m here, so I will see how I go.”
Putting the disappointment of the first two days behind him, he was equal-first in the kicking test with 29/30.
State screening gives 115 players a chance to test in front of clubs for one day, doing the same tests as those at the combine.
Western Jets best and fairest winner Josh Bench was among those selected.
“I didn’t get it [picked for the screening] straight away but ended up getting the selection, which was pretty good,” says the hard-nosed midfielder from West Footscray who made a name for himself at Albion.
“It was pretty disappointing not to get a spot at the screening and I kept coming down for training for the young guns’ game and eventually got picked.”
Most players recruited this year will come from either the combine or state screening. For those who haven’t come through the traditional under-18 competitions, there’s another alternative — the DraftStar combine.
In its second year, this includes a mix of players invited from the TAC Cup and others from other leagues who choose to attend.
According to Pell, who ran the DraftStar, many of the players were more determined as they saw it as their last opportunity.
“These are the guys who are putting their hands up, playing for, in some cases, local-level football or at a state level.
“They have put their best foot forward and this is a secondary way for them to get noticed.
Pell says players at DraftStar were recording times just as good as those at the national combine.
Cannons and Strathmore midfielder Darcy Bailey, son of former Melbourne coach Dean, says going to DraftStar is a bit of an unknown.
“I’m very lucky to be given an opportunity to test well at DraftStar.
“From all reports, it’s similar to the state screening and national. It’s all the same tests, and I’m really looking forward to it.
“Hopefully, I’ll do pretty well.”
With the testing over, the players have done all they can. Now it’s a waiting game to see whether their dreams will come true.
