Country rookies in high demand

TALL TIMBER: Young giants Darcy Cameron (of Albany) and Scott Jones (from Busselton) have their eye on an AFL future. Picture: Stewart Allen Source: PerthNow

WA will provide the two tallest players in this year's national draft pool, with towering ruck pair Scott Jones and Darcy Cameron capturing plenty of attention at yesterday's inaugural WA Talent Day.

The duo, who are both 17 and stand at 203cm, are set to form a powerful ruck combination in this year's under-18 championship and are predicted to be hot property come November.

State Academy manager Raff Guadagnino said it was rare to have teenagers of that size with clean hands and high overall skills.

"They are definitely the best ruckmen the WAFL has produced at an under-18s level since Nic Naitanui," he said.

"They possess intelligence, quality hand-eye coordination and are mentally-tough athletes."

Jones, from Busselton, said he had always embraced his height.

"I love being tall, it's who I am, and I love ruckwork," he said.

"I'm making the move up to Perth to get my footy career up and going and have a big year with East Perth and with the state 18s again, so hopefully if that goes well I'll get drafted at the end of the year."

Albany product Cameron also has his sights set on an AFL career.

"I'd love to get there and I'll work real hard for it," he said.

"I was always fairly tall but then I had a bit of a growth spurt in Year 9 and got a lot bigger and I've been playing ruck since then."

The best 50 prospects from around the state completed combine testing and interviews with recruiters from 16 AFL clubs yesterday.

They also played a north v south of the river match at Arena Joondalup in front of scouts.

The first WA Talent Day came after criticism of the state's development system last year.

"It ensures that we're the first in the nation to promote our under-18s players to the AFL clubs, but more importantly ensure that they get a good quality education throughout the day," Guadagnino said.

"We want to be at the cutting edge and this is part of making sure that our players are better developed going into 2013."

AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan said it was too early to make judgments regarding the depth of this year's crop of potential draftees from WA.

"Kids change so much over a period of three or four months: they change athletically and get bigger," he said.

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