Rising Rays set for draft

By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG is set to frank its reputation as one of Australia’s finest footy factories at next week’s AFL draft.
The Stingrays TAC Cup program, which produced last year’s top pick in Tom Scully, will again figure prominently in the selection meeting at the Gold Coast Convention Centre next Thursday.
Towering forward Tom Lynch – a likely top-10 selection – is among an elite group of nominees invited to attend the draft, while Stingrays co-captains Luke Parker and Mitch Hallahan have also been touted as first-round prospects.
A handful of their team-mates – including draft camp attendees Andrew McInnes, Jake Batchelor and Arryn Siposs – will also endure a nervous morning in front of TVs and computers as they wait for their names to be announced.
Stingrays region manager Darren Flanigan believes there’s a realistic chance that the 2010 crop could break the club record for most players recruited onto an AFL list.
The Rays have had six draftees on three occasions, most recently in 2000, and could be looking at a similar figure being either drafted or rookie-listed this year.
Two players, Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel, have already been signed by Greater Western Sydney under the new club’s list concessions and Todd Elton may join them as early as this week.
“You’d like to think that the six that went to the draft camp would be reasonably certain of getting on a list, whether it’s a main list or rookie list,” Flanigan said. “So if we get those six, plus the three that go to GWS, that’s a club record in itself.”
Lynch is almost certain to be the first Stingray called next week, having been widely rated as the second best key-position prospect – behind Gold Coast-bound South Australian Sam Day – in the draft pool. “There’s speculation about Tom going as early as seven and I couldn’t see him getting past about 15,” Flanigan said.
That would cap an incredible rise for Lynch, who was initially cut from the Rays’ list in 2009.
At that time, he was a six-foot midfielder fighting for a position in the midfield group alongside Parker, Hallahan, Tom Scully and Ryan Bastinac. Now, at six-foot-six or 199cm, he has the aerial prowess to match his mobility and ground-level skills.
Siposs has made a similarly meteoric rise, having played his footy for Beaconsfield in the Dandenong and District Junior Football League last year, before emerging as a mobile, strong-marking forward at TAC Cup level this year.
Meanwhile, Springvale South resident Jackson Sketcher will also be hoping to find an AFL home, having vaulted into draft contention during a stellar year as captain of the Sandringham Dragons.
Sketcher, who played his junior footy with Noble Park, was the joint-winner of the TAC Cup’s best-and-fairest award, the Morrish Medal.