Jones hopeful of big AFL Draft haul for WA

AAMI WA Football State Talent Manager Adam Jones is hopeful up to a dozen West Aussies will realise their AFL dreams next month.

With the AFL National and Rookie drafts fast approaching, nine WA draft hopefuls put their best foot forward at Sunday’s WA State Draft Combine in Perth.

Jones felt around half of the nine State Draft Combine invitees could end up on an AFL list, to go with the majority of the seven WA talents invited to the earlier AFL National Draft Combine in Melbourne.

“Hopefully, the depth might squeeze out to 10-12 kids drafted from WA,” Jones said after Sunday’s WA State Draft Combine.

“There’s a number of guys that I think are a really good chance to end up on an AFL list.

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“Obviously, we can’t predict what’s going to happen, but we certainly feel three, four or five (players) should end up on a list from this (WA State Draft Combine) group.”

Among the stars of the State Combine were East Fremantle livewire Finlay Yeo, who’s part of Fremantle’s Next Generation Academy, and East Perth speedster Garrison Kenh who’s an Eagles NGA talent.

Yeo smashed the all-time agility testing record, knocking off fellow West Aussie and GWS Giants livewire Darcy Jones’ record set back in 2022.

Yeo amazingly broke the record multiple times on the day, finishing with a staggering 7.533 seconds which easily bettered Jones’ previous mark of 7.70 seconds.

It was a great day for the Sharks Colts premiership gun, who posted the second fastest time in the 20m sprint with 2.95 seconds, with Kenh impressing with a rapid time of 2.931 seconds.

Claremont young gun and West Coast father-son prospect Harper Banfield followed in the footsteps of his brother and St Kilda midfielder Charlie by winning the 2km time trial at WA Athletics Stadium.

Banfield recorded a personal-best time of 6:11 to finish one second ahead of mature-aged Perth forward Kane Johnston who also produced some eye-catching times across the day including third in the 20m sprint with 3.026 seconds.

Johnston was also equal-first in the left vertical jump alongside Kenh on 82cm with Yeo 1cm behind, while Claremont defender Tom Brown took out the right vertical jump with an 81cm effort to beat Kenh by 1cm.

Jones urged Fremantle and West Coast to pick WA’s local talent.

“If we can keep our boys local, it’s fantastic,” Jones said.

“It’s a no-brainer, from our point of view.”

Rising Claremont star Heath Mellody is set to be the first West Aussie picked in the National Draft, while Swan Districts midfielder Leo Steed also expected to go in the first round.

Several others are in the mix to go in the first few rounds of the draft including Claremont pair George Gale and Benji van Rooyen.