WE are witnessing greatness, in the form of a "kid" who is still only 21.
The greatness has come in just 62 matches. It is a clinical greatness, forged by an unparalleled personal drive to be the best player in the game, and it has come despite one of the most serious physical setbacks that can be inflicted on an AFL player, an ACL rupture.
Such is the ferocious willpower of Will Ashcroft that there may not be a ceiling to his greatness.
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"He just wants to be the best, wants to be the best player in the AFL," Brisbane football operations boss Danny Daly told AFL.com.au.
"It's not an arrogant trait in any way, it's not ego. It's just that he doesn't, and won't, rest about it. He's never stopping trying to get better. And he should be proud of that, as we are of him."
Ashcroft has just completed five consecutive brilliant quarters of football. He, like his team, had a slow start to 2026, a season in which the Lions are aiming to make a fourth consecutive Grand Final.
After a personal rev-up from coach Chris Fagan at three-quarter time against St Kilda in round three, Ashcroft exploded to lead Brisbane to its first win of the season.
On Easter Thursday, he was a clear best-afield against Collingwood, controlling proceedings from first to last siren.
Daly was a key cog in Richmond Football Club's establishment of premiership success, working closely with coach Damien Hardwick as young Tiger players, including the great Dustin Martin, were developed on the way to winning the 2017, 2019 and 2020 flags.
"The drive is the comparison," Daly said when asked for similarities between Ashcroft and Martin, who happens to be the only player in V/AFL history with more Norm Smith Medals than Ashcroft.
"They are very different players. But the drive is the thing. That is something they both have. They set themselves to be the best, they want to be the best, prepare to be the best, and they are prepared to do everything they can to get there."
For Ashcroft, part of the "do everything" component to his football included another off-season obsession with improving his body and mind in one and two per cent increments. In January, he travelled to an internationally renowned sports medicine facility in Doha to explore ways to better condition his body for football.
His dealings with the Lions' sports performance psychologist, Anthony Klarica, have allowed him to appreciate and celebrate extraordinary team and personal success. But even more importantly for a young man wired to never settle for the status quo, this relationship has sought ways to reset goals and redefine his meaning of success.
It has not been by chance that Ashcroft has elevated himself to the elite. It has been the result of hundreds and hundreds of hours of studying football and all its intricacies.
Giving 100 per cent focus to training drills, match simulation, match-day contests, vision of himself and teammates and opponents has provided him with the ability to read the ball off a ruckman's hand at least the equal to anyone in the game.
In game No.18 in his first season, Ashcroft ruptured his knee in the final quarter of a match against Geelong at the Gabba. He missed the final five home-and-away matches and finals series of 2023, and also the opening 15 matches of 2024.
Knee injuries of this magnitude regularly adversely impact and stall careers. For Ashcroft, his was a mere pause on a path to greatness, and provided him with time to deeply study where he was to fit in the modern game.
Ashcroft pestered the great Lachie Neale during this time on the sidelines, desperately seeking to gain insight into the two-time Brownlow Medal winner's ball-gathering nous, game-day preparation, football intelligence and on-field positioning at contests.
It was Neale whom Ashcroft, just 13 games back after the knee reconstruction and in career game no.31, defeated to win the 2024 Norm Smith Medal in a Grand Final win against Sydney.
Somehow, despite 11 months on the sidelines, and still only 20, Ashcroft had come back with greater footy smarts. Somehow he was even faster than before, and incredibly, he waltzed through that day and the entire 2024 finals series with the composure of a 200-game player.
It is obviously highly debatable, but given Ashcroft secured a second Norm Smith Medal in 2025 against Geelong, in career game No.58, a strong argument could be made that his absence in the 2023 Grand Final, in his first season, cost the Lions that year's flag. Final score that day: Lions 86, Pies 90.
Ashcroft is not one to look back, only forward, though. Which likely means a third and fourth Norm Smith Medals are in view, as well as a Brownlow or two.
And he doesn't turn 22 until next month.
