AFTER a huge year of football, the nation’s top footballers battled it out for athletic honours last week at the National Draft Combine. A number of top-end talents took out individual tests, while others put their name forward to recruiters because of improvement in certain areas.

Gut-running Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels’ athlete Jay Rantall took out both the 2km time trial and the yo-yo test, sharing the latter with Geelong Falcons’ co-captain Cooper Stephens. In the speed tests, it was Northern Knights’ Sam Philp who clocked a speed of 2.867 seconds in the 20-metre sprint to take it out, with West Australian Ben Johnson the only other player to record under 2.9 seconds. Top five hopeful, Hayden Young took out the agility test, bettering his pre-season effort to record a lightning quick 7.940 seconds to be the sole player under eight seconds. For the jumps, it was Miles Bergman and Brady Rowles who impressed the most. Bergman took out the standing vertical jump with a 77cm effort, four more than Rowles. But with a run-up it was Rowles taking the honours with a massive 98cm jump, eight more than Bergman who was second.

Vertical jump (cm)

Miles Bergman 77
Brady Rowles 73
Ben Johnson 70
Daniel Mott 70
Cody Weightman 69
Sam Flanders 69
Lachlan Williams 69
Sam Philp 69
Nick Bryan 69

Agility (seconds)

Hayden Young 7.940
Elijah Taylor 8.005
Thomson Dow 8.061
Trent Rivers 8.100
Oisin Gallen 8.197
Chad Warner 8.203
Sam Flanders 8.206
Noah Cumberland 8.208
Connor Budarick 8.242
Dylan Stephens 8.245

20m sprint (seconds)

Sam Philp 2.867
Ben Johnson 2.885
Malcolm Rosas 2.924
Mitch Georgiades 2.925
Noah Cumberland 2.931
Finn Maginness 2.957
Harrison Jones 2.963
Jeremy Sharp 2.966
Brady Rowles 2.968
Dylan Stephens 2.972

Running vertical jump (cm)

Brady Rowles 98
Miles Bergman 90
Sam Flanders 88
Cian McBride 87
Lachlan Williams 86
Hugo Ralphsmith 86
Jaxon Prior 85
Nick Bryan 85
Oscar Lewis 83
Kysaiah Pickett 83
Cody Weightman 83
Will Day 83
Brady Rowles 83
Cooper Stephens 83
Harrison Jones 83

Yo-Yo test (level)

Jay Rantall 21.8
Cooper Stephens 21.8
Connor Budarick 21.6
Chad Warner 21.6
Oscar Lewis 21.5
Sam Philp 21.5
Lachlan Ash 21.4
Harrison Jones 21.4
Finn Maginness 21.4
Trey Ruscoe 21.4
Riley Baldi 21.3
Sam Flanders 21.3
Matt Rowell 21.3
Jeremy Sharp 21.3

2km time trial results (min:sec)

Jay Rantall 5:50 minutes
Finn Maginness 5:51
Dylan Stephens 6:01
Louis Butler 6:09
Hugo Ralphsmith 6:12
Jeremy Sharp 6:12
Connor Budarick 6:15
Jai Jackson 6:15
Will Martyn 6:16
Ned Cahill 6:17
Matt Rowell 6:17
Noah Anderson 6:17
Cooper Stephens 6:17
Cian McBride 6:17