{"id":79898,"date":"2021-04-29T11:56:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T01:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=79898"},"modified":"2021-11-10T05:43:21","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T19:43:21","slug":"young-guns-2021-vfl-round-2-nab-leaguers-filter-into-the-state-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2021\/04\/29\/young-guns-2021-vfl-round-2-nab-leaguers-filter-into-the-state-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Guns: 2021 VFL Round 2 – NAB Leaguers filter into the state league"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITH the NAB League in the midst a month-long break after three full rounds of action, some of Victoria’s most promising Under 19 talent has begun to filter into the Victorian Football League (VFL). A raft of top-age draft prospects made their state league debuts in Round 2, while members of all four Northern Academies also took the field for their respective sides. We take a look at how the prominent 19th-year players performed as they hit senior level footballs.<\/p>\n

>> INSIGHT |\u00a0Which 19-year-olds have improved their stocks?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Footscray Bulldogs unveiled Next Generation Academy (NGA) graduate, Cody Raak<\/strong> in their 72-point thumping of GWS on Thursday night. Raak contributed nine disposals and four marks in his maiden game, after making a stellar start to this year’s NAB League proceedings. The marking defender has worked on his weapons after narrowly missing out on a senior spot at the Bulldogs, averaging 27 disposals, six marks, and nine rebound 50s in three Under 19s outings.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Giants Academy product, Josh Green<\/strong> (21 disposals, three marks) was named his side’s best player on Thursday. The brother of current GWS midfielder Tom<\/strong>, he trained with Richmond after also being overlooked at last year’s draft. The 18-year-old is a versatile tall who is working on his midfield craft, but can be a true utility.<\/p>\n

Speaking of academy talent, Gold Coast continues to blood its youth squad products, with past and present members among the Suns side which beat Sydney on Saturday morning. 19th-year tall Jack Johnston<\/strong> earned full votes in his team’s triumph, clunking six marks in his 12-disposal performance. Fellow 2002-births Bailey Reeves<\/strong> (12 disposals, five marks) and Thomas Hofert<\/strong> (seven disposals) also got some run in their legs, as 2003-births Will Bella<\/strong> (10 disposals, five marks, three goals) and Bodhi Uwland<\/strong> (seven disposals) also featured. Bella is the brother of Suns AFLW ruck, Lauren<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Brisbane Lions also fielded a bunch of Academy graduates, with six in the Under 19 category. Will Tasker<\/strong> impressed with 14 touches and two goals, as the likes of Saxon Crozier<\/strong> (12 disposals, four marks) and Toby Triffett<\/strong> (11 disposals, eight tackles) worked hard in the Lions’ 69-point loss to Carlton. Athletic bigman Jack Briskey<\/strong>, who vied for a Collingwood AFL spot in preseason, was also amongst the action with Tahj Abberley<\/strong> and Shatna Cashen-Harris<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s game to watch for NAB League talent making the step-up was Essendon against Collingwood, which the Bombers won by 35 points at Victoria Park. The Bombers had current Bendigo Pioneers top-agers Jack Hickman<\/strong> and Sam Conforti<\/strong> make their debuts, with the latter named among his new side’s best players. Collingwood NGA Youseph Dib<\/strong> made the step up and laid eight tackles in the front half, while fellow Oakleigh players Will Hart<\/strong> and Dylan Thomas<\/strong> also made their debuts.<\/p>\n

North Melbourne was another side to dip into the NAB League over the weekend, with a couple of Tasmania Devils talents coming into the side. Oliver Sanders<\/strong> (12 disposals, one goal) was among the Kangaroos’ votes as they went down to Frankston, while Tyler McGinnis<\/strong> (five disposals, four marks) also had a crack. For Sandringham, Dragons co-captain Darby Hipwell<\/strong> suited up for the Zebras and showed promise for his 13 touches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WITH the NAB League in the midst a month-long break after three full rounds of action, some of Victoria’s most promising Under 19 talent has begun to filter into the Victorian Football League (VFL). A raft of top-age draft prospects made their state league debuts in Round 2, while members of all four Northern Academies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":78759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7949,8,16699,3134],"tags":[12472,13721,15429,235,13555,9357,5931,2245,12608,686,16427,5478,9495,7339,16840,7951,3332,11815,8239,13006,2835,5482,13368,1730,5481,16841,14533,5494,15890,27,16839,1883,8554,9336,11549,11976,1958,8999],"class_list":["post-79898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nab-league","category-news","category-vfl","category-victoria","tag-19-year-old","tag-2021-afl-draft","tag-2021-vfl","tag-afl-draft","tag-bailey-reeves","tag-bodhi-uwland","tag-cody-raak","tag-darby-hipwell","tag-debut","tag-draft-prospects","tag-dylan-thomas","tag-jack-briskey","tag-jack-hickman","tag-jack-johnston","tag-josh-green-academy","tag-nab-league","tag-next-generation-academy","tag-nga","tag-northern-academies","tag-oliver-sanders","tag-sam-conforti","tag-saxon-crozier","tag-shatna-cashen-harris","tag-state-league","tag-tahj-abberley","tag-thomas-hofert","tag-toby-triffett","tag-tyler-mcginniss","tag-under-19","tag-vfl","tag-vfl-round-2","tag-victoria","tag-victorian-football-league","tag-will-bella","tag-will-hart","tag-will-tasker","tag-young-guns","tag-youseph-dib"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90744,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79898\/revisions\/90744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}