Calder Cannons Head Coach Ross Smith gives his thoughts on the club's upcoming NAB League Boys season.

2018 FINISH: 9th (7-9-1 record)

2018 BEST AND FAIREST: 1. Mitch Podhajski / 2. Daniel Mott / 3. Jake Riccardi & Curtis Taylor

2018 TEAM OF THE YEAR SELECTIONS: Mitch Podhajski, Curtis Taylor, Rhylee West

2018 AFL DRAFTEES: Rhylee West (Western Bulldogs), Jack Bytel (St Kilda), Curtis Taylor (North Melbourne), Lachlan Sholl (Adelaide)

OTHER FORMER PLAYERS ON AFL LISTS:

  • Selected in 2004: Lynden Dunn (Melbourne/Collingwood) 165/31 games, Eddie Betts (Carlton/Adelaide) 184/111
  • 2005: Richard Douglas (Adelaide) 237
  • 2008: Jackson Trengove (Port Adelaide/Western Bulldogs) 153/16, Shaun McKernan (Adelaide/Essendon) 34/28
  • 2009: Jake Melksham (Essendon/Melbourne) 114/42, Daniel Talia (Adelaide) 164, Jake Carlisle (Essendon/St Kilda) 85/39
  • 2010: Dion Prestia (Gold Coast/Richmond) 95/35, Mitch Wallis (Western Bulldogs) 123, Cameron Guthrie (Geelong) 141, Tom Liberatore (Western Bulldogs) 117
  • 2011: Brandon Ellis (Richmond) 153, Tom Sheridan (Fremantle/GWS) 81/0
  • 2012: Lachlan Plowman (GWS/Carlton) 20/53, Joe Daniher (Essendon) 100, Rory Atkins (Adelaide) 77
  • 2014: Paul Ahern (GWS/North Melbourne) 0/11, Peter Wright (Gold Coast) 49, Jake Lever (Adelaide/Melbourne) 56/11, Touk Miller (Gold Coast) 82, Roarke Smith* (Western Bulldogs) 12, Reilly O'Brien* (Adelaide) 2
  • 2015: Callum Moore* (Richmond) 6
  • 2016: Mitchell Lewis (Hawthorn) 2, Ben Ronke* (Sydney) 18, Zach Guthrie* (Geelong) 16
  • 2017: Noah Balta (Richmond) 0

2019 AFL ACADEMY:

  • Level 2 (18yo): Daniel Mott, Brodie Newman
  • Level 1 (17yo): Campbell Edwardes

2019 HEAD COACH: Ross Smith (second season)

2019 SEASON START: vs Sandringham Dragons @ RSEA Park, Sunday March 24 

TOP 2019 AFL DRAFT PROSPECTS

Daniel Mott (local club – Brunswick): "Daniel is a Rolls Royce as an inside and outside midfielder. He has silky skills on both sides of the body and is a tough clearance player who can rack up eight to 10 clearances per game. He needs to continue working on his speed because he probably lacks a yard of pace at this stage, but he's probably our most skilled player."

Brodie Newman (Aberfeldie): "Brodie came to us as a forward but has mostly played down back, so he can play at both ends of the ground. I think he's more of a key defender, but I'm not sure whether he'll continue to grow enough to stay in that role. He reads the play well and has really good hands for marking the ball in defence."

Sam Ramsay (Gisborne): "Sam is a quick and versatile player who carries the ball and is a long, penetrating left-foot kick. He's well suited to playing off half back or a wing and has also been able to kick goals as a small forward."

Sam Graham (19yo in 2019, Gisborne): "Sam is an outside midfielder who can also go inside the contests. He has a huge tank (endurance) and good speed, he's a nice, long kick and he's pretty tough. AFL clubs probably want to see him get a harder edge to his game and win a fair bit more of the ball this year."

Joshua Kemp (19yo, Aberfeldie): "Josh came into our program halfway through last season and played six games as a forward. He's a high-flying excitement machine who does one or two things a game that are jaw-dropping, but he probably needs to have more impact throughout games. AFL clubs just haven't seen enough of him yet."

Tye Browning (19yo, Craigieburn): "Tye is a midfielder who mostly plays on the wing. He's very hard at the ball, he has deceptive speed and he's a good trainer as well – he never misses a session. He probably needs to continue working on his skills; he's a pretty good kick, but they're probably not at the absolute top-end yet."

Mason Fletcher (19yo, Aberfeldie): "Mason showed a lot of promise in our first three games last season but then had some back issues that hampered him for most of the year. He's spent most of his pre-season at Essendon going through rehab and he's very much in the mould of his old man (former Bombers AFL defender Dustin Fletcher)."

LEADERSHIP MATERIAL

"Our leaders will come from the top-age group – players like Daniel Mott (see above) and Brodie Newman (see above). Brodie was one of our emerging leaders last year, so I imagine he'd be in the mix again. Curtis Brown (18yo, Macleod) is a good kid who's shown some leadership potential this year and I think Jacob Martin (18yo, Aberfeldie) has the potential to be our leadership group too."

FAMOUS FOOTBALL RELATIONS

Mason Fletcher (see above) and Max Fletcher (17yo, PEGS): Sons of former AFL player Dustin Fletcher – 400 games for Essendon.

Oliver Liberatore (18yo, St Bernard's): Son of former AFL player Tony Liberatore – 283 games for Western Bulldogs – and brother of current AFL player Tom Liberatore – 117 games for Western Bulldogs.

Cobi West (16yo, Strathmore) and Cooper West (16yo, Strathmore): Sons of former AFL player Scott West – 324 games for Western Bulldogs – and brothers of 2018 Western Bulldogs draftee Rhylee West.

Joshua Misiti (16yo, Aberfeldie): Son of former AFL player Joe Misiti – 236 games for Essendon.

Harrison Minton-Connell (18yo, Aberfeldie): Son of former AFL player Simon Minton-Connell – 19 games for Carlton/46 for Sydney/22 for Hawthorn/25 for Western Bulldogs.

Jacob Martin (see above): Son of former AFL player Michael Martin – 48 games for Western Bulldogs/10 for Brisbane.

TEAM STRENGTHS

"We've been lacking a lot of height across the board the last few years and we were the smallest side on average in the competition last season, so there's been a real push to bring in some taller kids and a lot of them are developing nicely. We also had a lot of 17-year-olds play last year and I think those boys are going to be a lot better this year because of that development. We'll have some draftable talent with some serious AFL traits."