Wailin' for Waylen
WAYLEN MANSON shapes as one of the stories of next week's NAB AFL Draft and Emma Quayle explains why in The Age on Wednesday.

Manson is the 18-year-old who upstaged Brendan Fevola on the day he debuted for Waratahs in the Northern Territory last month.

Fev kicked eight that afternoon, but was the support act for Manson, who kicked a lazy 10.

''It was a little bit scary. I kept getting knees in the back of the head, but he was incredible,'' Fevola told the newspaper.

''Everything he did was spot on. He was kicking them from absolutely everywhere.''

It was a performance that has the AFL recruiters all flying to Darwin to have a look at the player West Coast supposedly has been keen on for some time and is rumoured to have asked to "go bush" for a time to keep him away from prying eyes.

"Manson has talent. He's 191 centimetres, and quick. He knows how to take marks and can do things that are hard to categorise, explain or expect," writes Quayle.

He is your classic draft bolter and we can expect to hear lots about him in the lead-up to next week's draft and in all likelihood, considerably more thereafter.

Hawks cast votes
Hawthorn members are now voting to decide their next president and The Age has the early votes going 90-10 in favour of vice-president Andrew Newbold over former president Geoff Lord.

The newspaper also reports that a compromise was discussed that would have ruled out the need for the vote, with Lord offering to join the board or to head up a new business coterie at the club in exchange for not standing for the presidency.

After then being advised by Newbold that neither position would be available, Lord went ahead and nominated for the presidency.

"This originally was a contest about giving members choice between two individuals and it's become a contest between an individual and the club, because Andrew is endorsed by the club board unanimously," Lord said.

Hawks coining it
Also on the Hawks, the Herald Sun writes that the club is aiming to announce a profit of between $1.6 and $1.9 million.

It comes as St Kilda, a Grand Finalist in 2009 and 2010 is tipped to post a loss of about $1.5 million.

Hawks chief executive Stuart Fox confirmed that the imminent profit announcement would confirm that the Hawks are in a "very healthy" position.

Giant step for Coniglio
If there was even the slightest doubt that gun West Australian midfielder Stephen Coniglio was off to Greater Western Sydney next season, it was nipped in the bud once and for all in the Herald Sun on Wednesday.

It has emerged that Coniglio was flown to Stockholm by the Giants in September for treatment on his knee in an arrangement that was approved by the AFL in the same manner that David Swallow was allowed to play for Gold Coast's VFL outfit in 2010 ahead of the national draft.

Skipper in waiting
Joel Selwood has been all but anointed as the next captain of Geelong, but even as he acts the spokesman at the club's high-altitude camp, the star midfielder isn't quite ready to accept the mantle just yet.

"The senior guys that are there at the moment, the core group, they've put a culture in place to make it easy around the place, a culture that generates success, and we'll just continue that on," he told the Herald Sun as he contemplated life without Cameron Ling, Brad Ottens, Cam Mooney and Darren Milburn.

"You are going to miss them and you can't change (the young guys) into them, because they were impressive individuals in what they did on the field and off the field.

"But we're confident that we can get a group together that can be up there to contend again."

The Cats will draw the process out for just that bit longer, but it is impossible to imagine anyone other than the no.14 leading the Cats out and tossing the coin in 2012.

Eagles eye small forward
West Coast won't be selecting former Fremantle and Collingwood small forward Paul Medhurst at either of the forthcoming drafts, but Murray Newman is shaping as one of the club's first picks according to The West Australian.

Newman is a 177cm small forward with an outstanding left-foot kick and a noted goalkicker at Colts level in Western Australia.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs