Trengove a draft bargain: McCartney

PORT Adelaide may have found the bargain of the draft with key position prospect Jackson Trengove at pick No. 22, according to AFL Youth and High Performance Co-coordinator, Jason McCartney.

Trengove missed the second half of the year with the Calder Cannons due to a serious hamstring injury which perhaps put him a bit further down the pecking order on NAB AFL Draft day.

But McCartney suggested those injuries concerns may be behind the teenager.

“The medical results came back the other week from the nerve specialist and it was really encouraging,” McCartney said.

“Still, obviously clubs were a little bit wary but they [Port Adelaide] came out of it really well.

“I’d consider him probably the best pick-up [from the draft].

“Port Adelaide’s got a bonus there. He’s a top-10, there’s no doubt about it, but he got injured so that’s a great pick up for Port.”

The AIS-AFL Academy has again dominated on Saturday with almost a third of the players selected in the NAB AFL Draft coming from the elite development program.

Former graduates of the Academy include the likes of Brownlow Medallists Chris Judd and Adam Cooney, as well as the most exciting forward in the game, Lance Franklin.

Saturday’s 16 first-round selections included 11 Academy members capping another successful draft day for the prestigious squad.

McCartney worked with many of the youngsters selected on Saturday and said the result was another success story for the Academy program.

“There were 24 [each year] out of our last two intakes,” McCartney said.

“I think from our group last year that was eligible I think there was [only] three that missed. That’s a really good result.”

Among the Academy’s stars from this year’s draft include top two picks Jack Watts and Nick Naitanui.

While he rated Trengove highly, McCartney also said North Melbourne should be thrilled to land Jack Ziebell with pick nine, while Collingwood did equally well to get TAC Cup hero Steele Sidebottom at pick 11.

“That just shows, I guess, the depth and the quality of the draft this year.”