FRESH off a premiership with Dandenong Stingrays, new Sandringham Dragons Talent Manager Mark Wheeler has hit the ground running at his new club. While his Stingrays ended the premiership dream of the Dragons last year, Wheeler is now engrossed in the Dragons program and the numbers training with the club when he arrived was a stark contrast.

“Preseason has gone really well, having bigger numbers was probably the main (difference) – having over 100 boys on the track when I rocked up in November was such a difference to deal with. “(The list is) very very deep and I know there’s some names that have been thrown around as potential players for 2019 and 2020 and I reckon there’s a lot more that will pop up during the year and throughout the year so I’m really happy with the program. “For myself, it’s business as usual, you get to learn everyone’s names, you get to learn your staff and then you just roll over and start doing what you were doing previously.”

Wheeler said the Dragons would use their speed and skill to be very dangerous when in transition, describing the style of play as “a little bit like Madball”. Like with change at any organisation, Wheeler said it was important to be clear with communication and make sure everyone at the club is on the same page.

“You always want to get your hands on some very talented programs and very talented young men,” he said. “Everyone knows the hype about this group so there’s some really good top-end talent so you love that, you love that you can have some influence on that, the difference that I’ve found with it is just purely the boys, learning their names first to start to get hold of it. I have my own reputation so I’ve got to really deal with these boys here that they’ve gotta learn to hear what I’m saying, that they’ve got to trust me, and the same with the coach so we’re both coming through, and I think the players – what you’ll see is a very fast brand of football where it’s a little bit like Madball, we’re gonna take the game on.”

Sandringham Dragons have a massive nine top-age players in the AFL Academy for 2019 – Jack Bell, Miles Bergman, Darcy Chirgwin, Andrew Courtney, Charlie Dean, Jack Mahony, Fischer McAsey, Hugo Ralphsmith and Josh Worrell. Wheeler said those players, along with a handful of others would lead an enviable draft crop for 2019. He anticipated as many as 20 players could put their names on the draft radar by year’s end, form permitting.

“The nine draftable boys that are in the Academy program wouldn’t be in that program if they didn’t think they were draftable prospects, but outside that Ryan Byrnes and (Louis) Butler, they’ve been standouts as well,” he said. “Byrnes has been given our captaincy and that’s player voted so he’s highly regarded. “Finn Magginness has probably been our standout poster boy and there’s been a little bit written about that; he’s just done everything right, he took the knocks, he was really disappointed he wasn’t in the Academy program, and then we keep going down the list, you go to Corey Watts, and he was our best and fairest winner as a 17-year-old and locked down on some big key position players last year, played a little bit undersize. “I think those three are some standouts along with some 19-year-olds, we have three. and I believe all three of them are draftable prospects, so we’re expecting the year they need to have as well, we’ll be up to 20 players.”

Despite the hype and expectation, Wheeler said it was important to keep all the players level headed with plenty that can change between season’s start and end. He said regardless of past form, those players had to have good years to ensure they remained front and centre for AFL clubs.

“I just say to the boys, you’re only as good as your next game, it’s your reputation from your last game … so just managing that with this group is probably going to be difficult,” Wheeler said. “There’s a lot of boys out there who have got a lot of expectations within themselves, they all want to get to the next level so we’re pretty happy with the group we’ve got, we think we’re pretty grounded, but yeah there’s really good standout individual talent that next season we’re going to see a lot of boys get their opportunities and all of a sudden we might be talking about their names as well.”

While Wheeler is in a unique position crossing from the premiers to another side over the off-season, he would have seen a familiar face at training, with Stingrays’ ruck Riley Bowman also making the move to Sandringham after missing out on being drafted last year. The Dragons lose a large chunk of players to school football and eventually, representative football, so when asked if Bowman would provide some security as a consistent tall around the ground, Wheeler said it was one of a number of reasons for approaching the former AFL Academy prospect.

“That was one of the factors, its all about the new system as well, the NAB League is really about getting these boys drafted if we possibly can or get them ready for their next level at VFL or potentially a draft in a few years time like we saw last year with that seven to 10 VFL players get picked up,” Wheeler said. “Bowman as nearly a 200cm bloke getting all the game time – we’ve got three of those, we’ve got (Jack) Bell and (Andrew) Courtney as well; both of those boys were gonna get most of the year. “Bell’s finished from year 12 at Haileybury last year, so definitely, it should make a difference for us.”

After a long off-season, Wheeler said he and the club were ready to play for premiership points against Calder Cannons on Sunday at RSEA Safety Park, Moorabbin.

“(We’re) definitely (excited),” he said. “We’re at RSEA Safety Park so our number one spot is RSEA. Running out on our own deck, it suits our game style, we’ve had four months of training on that ground, so super excited probably just as much as the players, we just want round 1 to start so we can get into the real season.”