The Werribee Football Club had another player drafted by an AFL side in Wednesday night’s mid-season rookie draft.
Kye Declase is the latest former Tiger following Jake Riccardi (GWS) and Josh Corbett (Gold Coast) to be picked up at the elite level after Melbourne selected him with pick 15.
Current Werribee coach Michael Barlow felt “a bit surreal” to have a player taken off his hands, but admits he must share the plaudits with the Demons’ head of development Mark Williams who oversaw the 24-year-old at Avalon Airport Oval.
Barlow says he received a cheeky text from ‘Choco’ and wasn’t sure exactly how to take it.
“It was a bit surreal to be honest. As a coach I was probably a little bit uncomfortable with any acknowledgment,” he said on SEN’s The Sporting Capital.
“Mark Williams actually did text me and I never know if it’s tongue in cheek or sarcasm with ‘Choco’.
“He text me and said, ‘Another feather in your cap’, and I think that’s his way of saying it was mainly me and you came in and steered him the rest of the direction.
“All jokes aside, I think even from our club point of view it’s remaining a platform for players to transition from VFL footy to AFL footy, and at Werribee we’d like to think we’re a real leader in that space. Kye just adds to that.”
After a 2020 season knocked out by COVID, Barlow says Declase has done a mountain of work to get himself to a standard where an AFL club saw fit to give him an opportunity.
“In terms of Kye, he was really strong in 2019,” he added.
“Last year was not a wasted year but a dead year for guys like Kye who’d didn’t play any footy. He got his life well and truly concrete last year. He had some visions of his own off the field, got a gym up and going and continued to work pretty hard off the field.
“He came in this year and it appeared as if he hadn’t missed too much of a beat and played some really good footy. We moved him around a little bit, which we’ve done for a few years.”
Declase, who spent time training with the Demons during pre-season, has been in sublime form across five VFL games in 2021, averaging 22 disposals, seven marks and kicking six goals.
He plays primarily as a winger, but can also flip between defence and attack in what Barlow describes as a kind of ‘Mr Fix-It’ operation.
But what does he bring to Simon Goodwin’s ladder-leading side that the Dees don’t already have?
“Clearly what they’ve got at the moment is an intoxicating side,” Barlow said.
“Kye is a really smart ball user, really composed, he does bring that running capacity and probably another rotation through the wing and half-back to assist what they’ve already got.
“He’s essentially the ‘Mr Fix-It’ for us. If we need one back, we’ll put him back. If we need one forward to take a mark and kick a goal, he’s also able to do that.
“He plays 90 per cent of his matches up and down the wing and runs really well and uses the footy really well. I’m stoked for him.”
Joining Declase at Melbourne is 19-year-old key defender Daniel Turner who arrives from Albury via the Murray Bushrangers.