Dennis-Lane hoping fourth draft will be lucky

TRENT Dennis-Lane is known around Subiaco Football Club as an analytical thinker and a student of the game, so he'd be well aware that second chances don't often come along for prospective AFL draftees.

On Thursday, Dennis-Lane, a late-blooming forward from Perth's northern suburbs, will watch the NAB AFL Draft in hope for the fourth straight year. But after three years of being close but not close enough, the 21-year-old goalkicker has cause for renewed optimism.

Dennis-Lane had a career-best season in 2009, booting 66 goals and playing every game with the Subiaco seniors. Recruiters have taken note and his continued development through four WAFL campaigns has reignited AFL interest.

He is training with Fremantle, has spoken with a number of other clubs that have asked him to stay tight-lipped, and says he is as ready as he has ever been to grasp an opportunity at the elite level. 

"The way I've developed the last couple of years, I think I've improved every year and hopefully it's enough to get on a list somehow, some way," he told afl.com.au.

"Footy was my main goal this year, I just put everything on the backburner to really have a crack at it. As you get older the time window starts to shrink, so I thought I'd have one big crack this year."

Dennis-Lane's four-year fight to earn an AFL contract began in 2006 after an encouraging end to his debut season with the Subiaco colts. His coach, Scott Waters, encouraged the "raw but special" junior talent to nominate for the draft. 

"Three or four years ago you had to look pretty closely at Trent to see where his real potential lay," Watters said. "[But] I always thought he was one of the most talented kids that had come through the district, he was just going to take another year or two to round out his game."

Watters, now an assistant at Collingwood, became Subiaco's league coach in 2007 and introduced a number of his former colts to senior football. Dennis-Lane played five league games that season and did all of his training with the senior side.

It was a year that gave him confidence and West Coast and the Brisbane Lions both made enquiries ahead of that year's draft. When his name wasn't called Dennis-Lane was naturally disappointed, but says he refused to give up.

"Scotty thought that I was developing every year, so I thought I could still give it a shot as an older player," he said. "I just turned my focus towards that and hoped the next year I could get on a rookie list or something like that."

According to Watters, Dennis-Lane came very close to ending up on West Coast's rookie list at the end of 2008 after playing 13 senior games with Subiaco. After three years spent pursuing an AFL spot, it was a near miss that left him flat.

"It was pretty hard, but you can look at it two ways I suppose; I chose to draw on it and use it as a bit of fire in the belly to come back stronger this year," he said. 
 
That "fire in the belly" was also stoked by the drafting of a number of Dennis-Lane's Subiaco teammates. NAB AFL Rising Star Daniel Rich (Brisbane Lions), Greg Broughton (Fremantle) and Adam Cockie (West Coast) all made their way to the big league and made varying impacts.

Watters says it was important for Subiaco to keep Dennis-Lane positive in 2009 while his former teammates flourished,. However, he credits the player with turning in an "outstanding year" and forcing his way back into draft calculations.

"I know he went close to being listed 12 months ago and he took that in the right sort of vein," Watters said.

"He went away still knowing that he had to develop himself. He did that and had an outstanding year. He's a better player now than he was 12 months ago and two years ago and that's all you can ask of a player."

Dennis-Lane, who has prepared for a career outside of football by studying sports science at Edith Cowan University, says he's thought about the prospect of missing out on draft day for the fourth consecutive year.

But Watters, who says the young forward's biggest strength is his ability to manufacture a goal, believes Dennis-Lane is ready to flourish in a full-time football program and will figure prominently with a number of clubs at this year's draft. 

"Some players are right to go at 17, 18, others are at 20,21 - he fits into the second category," Watters said. 

"There certainly were a few clubs that were interested in him last year and probably a couple of them that maybe wish they had taken him then, because he's probably on the radar of more clubs now.

"He's just improved progressively over the last three to four years, so it's now pleasing that he looks like he'll get an opportunity at the next level."

Log on to afl.com.au on D-day, Thursday, November 26, for the most comprehensive coverage of the 2009 NAB AFL Draft. We’ll have live chats, live audio streams, in-depth player profiles, club reaction and our famous afl.com.au Draft Tracker.