THE AFL Under-18 Boys Championships continue on Saturday when Western Australia takes on South Australia at Optus Stadium in a curtain-raiser to the Fremantle-Essendon AFL match later that night. 

SA will be looking to back up its strong win over Vic Country last weekend, with all eyes set to be on powerhouse forward Tyler Welsh, who is eligible to go to Adelaide as a father-son prospect in the 2024 draft. Welsh, the son of Scott, booted five goals in SA's 19-point victory over Vic Country at Ikon Park last Sunday. 

Others to keep an eye on include SA's lively forward Jack Delean, who kicked four against Vic Country, prolific midfielder Sid Draper and Hawthorn father-son prospect Will McCabe. 

WA is aiming to bounce back from a tough opening game of the championships, when it lost to the Allies by 88 points. WA defender Daniel Curtin had an engrossing battle with potential top-three pick Jed Walter in that game, while ruckman Mitch Edwards and midfielder Clay Hall were also good against the Allies. 

The championships will be played throughout June and July between Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia, Western Australia and the Allies (comprised of players from the ACT, NSW, Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania). 

All five teams will play each other once across the course of the U18 tournament, and the team with the best record from the round-robin tournament will be crowned the winner. 

U18s LATEST All you need to know about the AFL Under-18 Championships

Vic Metro is the reigning titleholder, having won the tournament last year for the first time since 2017.  

Western Australia v South Australia squads 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

2 Aiden O'Driscoll
5 Koen Sanchez
6 Presley Campbell
7 Luke Kelly
8 Oscar Hine-Baston
9 Lance Collard
11 Riley Wills
15 Reece Torrent
16 Ashton Ferreira
17 Riley Hardeman
18 Tyler Lindberg
22 Bo Allan
23 Koltyn Tholstrup
25 Joe Matthews
26 Elijah Scoble
28 Samuel van Rooyen
29 Luker Kentfield
30 Daniel Curtin
31 Mitchell Edwards
34 Joe Fonti
35 Clay Hall
37 Coen Livingstone
38 Lucas Kemp

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

2 Sid Draper
3 Callum Fairall
5 Kade Herbert
6 Sebastian Wauer
8 Ashton Moir (vc)
9 Bodie Ryan
10 Louie Montgomery
12 Jack Delean
13 Luca Slade
16 Loch Rawlinson
17 William Patton (c)
22 William McCabe
25 Benjamin Ridgway
26 Kane McAuliffe (dvc)
27 Jed Dignan
28 Tom Wheaton
29 Phoenix Hargrave
36 Tom Luck
38 Taylor Goad
40 Oscar Talbot
41 Patrick Weckert (dvc)
42 Tyler Welsh
48 Alex Holt (vc)
1 Trent Tattoli (emg)
15 Declan Gladigau (emg)