By JARROD POTTER
THE hard work is finally over for a fleet of TAC Cup players after a gruelling week at the AFL National and State Combines.
Eight Dandenong Stingrays featured in the national combine – the final chance for AFL recruiters to test and evaluate this year’s batch of potential draftees.
Number one draft prospect Jacob Weitering, premier defender Keiran Collins, Narre Warren pair Gach Nyuon and Kurt Mutimer as well as Beaconsfield quartet Bailey Rice, Tommy Glen, Tom Jok and Brandon White performed admirably at the event.
Nyuon put his hand up as the premier ruckman in the draft as the All Australian equalled Nick Naitanui’s jumping records – hitting 362cm for the absolute running vertical jump.
From rough diamond to polished AFL prospect in three years as a footballer, Springvale resident Nyuon’s footballing growth has been astonishing and Dandenong Stingrays region manager Mark Wheeler said it had put the 201cm ruckman at the top of his area of expertise.
“Young Gach has been great, I got stopped about four or five times and congratulated for the amount of work we’ve been able to do with him,” Wheeler said.
“That’s a credit to himself and he’s grown up a lot in the last 12 months.
“He’s presented himself in a manner that he demands an audience – he’d sit in a corner before, but now he’s the funny bloke who can stand in the meetings.”
Also shining on the big stage, Weitering showed another string to his bow – running a 15.1 beep test impress out of the tall defenders while Collins’ clean hands test (29/30) and running personal best times kept him in recruiters’ minds as well.
Mutimer’s express 20m sprint – clocking in at 2.88 seconds – clinched the top time ahead of Alex Morgan, Daniel Rioli and team mate Glen (2.90).
“I think as a group itself they all presented themselves pretty well – Collins and Weitering were the standouts – the testing showed they’re both in the top 20,” Wheeler said.
“15.1 – shouldn’t be running that when you’re a key back and he shouldn’t be able to achieve what he does with his results, but he did.
“Performed in a professional manner, which was good for him.
“Collins was fantastic – PB his 3km time, 20m, repeats and the feedback we got was all the boys interviewed well with the clubs.”
The state combine had its hiccups with long wait times and a compressed schedule, but the Rouse boys still managed to excel in their beloved beep test, with Zach reaching 16.1 and Jordan getting into the 15s.
From now on the potential draftees’ fate rests in the hands of the recruiting staff ahead of November’s AFL National Draft, held in Adelaide.
At least half a dozen Stingrays will have their names called throughout the drafts, according to Wheeler, but he thinks there are up to 14 players ready to make the step up if they got their chance.
“Credit to the boys for all the hard work they’ve done, and it’s a tick to us that we’ve done everything and there’s not much we can do after that,” Wheeler said.
“We’ll get the follow up phone calls after they rejig the order and trade their picks – but I still reckon we believe have six to eight genuines who will go and a good four to six in the rookie chance window and we’re pretty happy with that.”
