Brisbane Lions GM of football Danny Daly isn’t limiting his expectations for Will Ashcroft’s debut season.
Ashcroft came into the 2022 National Draft as the consensus top prospect and was claimed early on by the Lions as a father-son selection.
After seeing the 18-year-old get some run throughout pre-season training, Daly believes Ashcroft could be capable of having a big impact in his first year of senior football.
“(Ashcroft has) taken some massive steps over the last couple of months to show exactly what he’s like as a player,” Daly told SEN’s The Run Home.
“Everyone is going to see what he can do but we had a practice match on Friday night, and he was probably close to one of the best on the ground.”
While Daly doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, he is confident that Ashcroft is capable of establishing himself in a Lions side with premiership aspirations.
“The world is his oyster, if he performs well he’ll keep playing and keep playing a role for us and get himself into our midfield,” he said.
“We’re also mindful that he’s a young kid and he’s coming into a pretty good outfit at the minute.
“In his own mind, I think he thinks he’s ready to attack the AFL with vigour and have a fantastic season and be part of our 18 and cement his spot in the side, which he’s capable of doing.
“We don’t hold any limitations on what he can do to be honest.”
It’s not just the young guns that Daly is keeping an eye on, with the footy GM also impressed by one of their trade period acquisitions, veteran forward Jack Gunston.
“The thing that I’m noticing about Jack in the time that he has been here is just his knowledge of the game and his leadership,” he said.
“Some of the stuff he’s been able to educate our forwards on through experience, running patterns and how to play the game has been beneficial and he hasn’t even played a game yet.”
While Gunston is a unique type of forward, Daly is expecting the former Hawk to fill the empty role created by the departure of Dan McStay.
“Obviously we lost Dan McStay last year and we feel that Jack can come in and play a role, not similar to (McStay) in terms of being the bulky forward who crashes and bashes, but Jack brings a wealth of experience,” he said.
“You know how he goes in front of goals, he reads the play really well.
“The way we move the football and score heavily, we feel that Jack can finish off some really good work off the field and potentially kick a lot of goals for us this year.
“I’ve been really impressed by how he’s gone about it, he’s done most of the sessions, he’s looking fit and I think he’s in for a pretty big year up here.”
Fans will get their first glimpse of the two new Lions in action in their first pre-season match simulation, with the squad set to face off against Sydney on February 24.