With the competition moving from an under-18 to an under-19 competition after missing games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sides are having the same captains coming back and similar squads.
Murray Bushrangers talent manager Mick Wilson is greeted by familiar faces this season, with Kate Adams back to co-captain the Bushrangers’ girls side, while plenty of the boys are also returning.
“It means there are two age brackets vying to do well and be in the running for the draft,” Wilson said.
“The top two age groups are eligible and that's the first time we've had that."
The Bushrangers will now have affiliations with Collingwood's and Richmond's VFL and VFLW sides, too, allowing juniors to line-up in senior sides in the revamped East Coast VFL competition.
“It's a really interesting dynamic, if they get a look at a player they're more likely to be interested (at the draft),” Wilson said.
He said the Bushrangers’ coaches and development sides didn't spend much time discussing the draft itself, especially after Zavier Maher — who was touted as a top-30 pick last year — was overlooked, but said missing out in a top-age year was no longer the be-all and end-all.
“People are being drafted well past their draft year now, the way it's evolved even up to 23 you can get picked up in the draft,” Wilson said.
The women's NAB League competition kicked off at the start of the AFLW season, and missing a game due to Victoria's snap five-day lockdown in February showed the Bushrangers would still need to be flexible.
“It'll be interesting to see the impact of COVID . . . but we think this group will be resilient enough,” he said.
19°C