While all eyes are set on this month’s AFL Draft, clubs could be looking towards 2023 with more excitement after talented underage players showed off their wares as 17-year-olds last season.
With under-18 football barely being played across 2020 and 2021 due to COVID, players weren’t given opportunities to play representative footy before their draft years.
That changed in 2022 as a normal season took place, and AFL Media’s draft guru Cal Twomey thinks there’s a possibility 2023 may be a “super draft” given how impressive some of the nation’s 17-year-olds fared against players a year their senior.
“Not as much a key position player for next year as such,” Twomey said on SEN Sportsday.
“But next year’s draft looks ultra-exciting, we’re sniffing a super draft for next year, there are elements of it already.
“Part of it is that we’ve actually seen the 17-year-olds play this year, we haven’t seen that for two years.”
While these players will play another season of junior football before becoming draft-eligible, Twomey named two exciting names he expects to feature near the top of the 2023 National Draft.
“There’s a couple of guys,” Twomey said.
“Zane Duursma is one of them, he’s a 190cm tall I guess you’d call him, he could be in that mix.
“Then there’s this kid called Harley Reid who everyone is talking about.
“There’s already a bit of a slogan, ‘Concede for Reid’, to finish last and pick up Harley Reid next year.
“He’s not a key forward, he’s a midfielder, a Dustin Martin type of player.
“You have to have an eye towards the future.”
The 2023 National Draft will likely take place in November next year.
This year’s draft is set for later this month on November 28 and 29.