AFL 2023: Western Australia endured a disappointing Under 18 national championships with two blowout losses

WA’s 18s were blown off the park in round one, beat South Australia in round two, lost narrowly to Vic Country in round three but were then humiliated by 81 points by Vic Metro in round four to end the titles on a sour note.

“We probably lacked competitiveness for three of the four quarters. It was a disappointing way to finish the carnival,” state talent manager Adam Jones told CODE Sports.

Jones said both of the poor performances had come on interstate trips and the WAFC would ask the AFL to support trial games pre-carnival in 2024 that involved travel to prepare the players better.

“You look back at it and they were the two games we had to travel for. The home games we played well in. It’s not uncommon for young boys,” he said. “We are going to try and see if we can get a trial game in against South Australia so we have better lead in games to the carnival and get an opportunity to travel before the main games as well – it might be something we can look at.”

Jones said WA had traditionally used practice matches against WAFL reserves teams as a lead-in but the effectiveness depended on how strong the reserves teams were.

“We played East Perth who were bottom of the ladder and then Swan Districts who were on top but who had a number of players pull out of the game on the weekend that we were going to play them so they were pretty diluted,” he said.

Jones said the WAFC wanted a lift in the standard of the WAFL colts so that players stepping up to the national titles wouldn’t find such a big jump in standard.

“It is a tough one. How do you increase the quality of the colts competition so that the players are playing at a level week to week that is closer to what they are going to be at the championships. They are the sort of things we are discussing and thinking about how we can give them more competition leading in so it is not such a shock for them when we get there,” he said.

WA were weakened by the absence of ruckman Mitch Edwards with concussion for the final game against Vic Metro. They were beaten badly out of the centre square as a result and Vic Metro forward Nick Watson, a likely top five pick in the draft, cashed in and booted five goals in a half.

‘Overall we didn’t compete for long enough. That was the main issue,” Jones said.

He was hoping the poor performances wouldn’t reduce the number of WA players picked at the national draft.

“You hope they see what they brought to the table across the two solid games and some guys still played reasonably well in the two big losses, but it helps a lot more if you have team success and the team plays well. Time will tell but there is still a lot of footy to be played throughout the year including (WAFL colts) finals which will be another opportunity for the boys to play well in big games.”

“We will have a number of players go up to seniors, both reserves and league. Some will get opportunities at league level.”

Defender Daniel Curtin was named WA’s MVP across the four games of the carnival, with midfielder Clay Hall another strong contributor.

“Daniel was strong, we felt across the four games and he is going to be really cementing his spot in that top five in the draft I would say,” Jones said.

WA has likely top 25 picks in Curtin, Edwards, Koltyn Tholstrup, Riley Hardeman and Hall.

The WAFC also holds hopes for a number of other players including West Coast NGA talents Lance Collard and Coen Livingstone.

Claremont tall Zane Zakostelsky shifted to defence late in the carnival and had opened recruiter’s eyes to his potential there.

Peel Thunder’s Reece Torrent and Perth’s Aiden O’Driscoll, the younger brother of Fremantle’s Nathan and AFLW star Emma O’Driscoll, were others to do their draft prospects no harm across the carnival.

“I think we have still got enough talent to get to double figures but beyond that it might depend on how a few boys finish up the end of their years.” Jones said.