Photo credit: Churchie Sport

Another Queenslander has joined the AFL system and will join the West Coast Eagles.

Jake Miles-Wrency, a one-time Coorparoo junior, signed with the West Coast Eagles on Tuesday after a sporting journey that crossed two sports and two countries.

A 199cm 20-year-old, he was signed by the Eagles as a Category B Rookie six years after being judged the best player at the Queensland Under 14 football championships and nine months after heading to the United States on a basketball scholarship.

A State junior football teammate of 2025 Lions premiership pair Levi Ashcroft and Sam Marshall, Miles-Wrency committed to the Eagles after an impressive summer trial in Perth.

He was eligible to do so without going through the normal draft channels because he has not been a registered footballer for the last three years. Or in his case six years.

Indeed, his last official football was at Under 14 level, when playing at Coorparoo while attending Church of England Grammar School, he won the Jason Akermanis Medal as the best player at the Queensland State Championships.

It’s an award also won by Lions’ dual North Smith Medallist Will Ashcroft and rising SUNS key forward Jed Walter. 

Miles-Wrency had preferred basketball to football in recent years, representing Queensland at State U16, U18 and U20 level and winning a place in the national junior pathway. 

He captained the Churchie First V in his final year and won a basketball scholarship to Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, Illinois.

That’s another part of the JMW story – Belleville is the birth place of former world tennis #1 Jimmy Connors, 1968 US Masters golf champion Bob Goalby, and actor Buddy Ebsen, best known for his role as ‘Jed’ in the long-running television sitcom The Beverley Hillbillies, and his title role in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones.

Coincidentally, too, Miles-Wrency’s early football pathway via Coorparoo and Churchie is identical to that of Hawthorn champion and AFL Hall of Fame Legend Jason Dunstall.

West Coast Head of List Management Matt Clarke said Miles-Wrency’s athletic profile was “elite”, with his 20m sprint time of 2.92 seconds equal to that of Cooper Duff Tytler, who joined West Coast via pick #4 in last year’s national draft.

“We are really excited to add someone of Jake’s athletic capabilities and his football skills during our trials really started to shine,” Clarke said.

“He is a very eager learner and driven character who is keen to get started.

“Jake has the athletic profile to play at either end of the ground, and the coaches are eager to see where he develops best.

“We are looking forward to Jake joining us very soon and integrating into our football program.”

Miles-Wrency described as ‘unreal’ the phone call from Eagles coach Andrew McQualter advising him of his latest career move.

“Getting the call from ‘Mini’ (McQualter) was so special and meant so much. It’s been a dream ever since playing footy as a junior,” he said.

“I’ve had some great experiences from playing basketball and look forward to using those skills to complement my footy. It’s a great combination of an exciting young team with some highly experienced guys and an amazing coaching staff that I can’t wait to learn from.”

So how did Miles-Wrency end up in Perth as a potential member of the AFL ‘Hyphen Club’?

When things weren’t going quite as planned in the US he decided he’d like to give football another crack. And through the widespread personal maze that is the AFL recruiting and player management network he made contact with Clarke, previously at Richmond.  

And, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Miles-Wrency will be the 44th Queenslander on the lists of the 18 AFL clubs this season and the first at West Coast, where he’ll team up with the ex-Brisbane trio of 2024-25 premiership player Brandon Starcevich, Deven Robertson and Elliot Yeo, and ex-SUNS rookie Sandy Brock.

There are two other significant connections to Queensland football at the Eagles – senior coach McQualter and Kyal Horsley, who is going into his third year as coach of the Eagles’ WAFL side, both played at the SUNS.

McQualter, originally from Gippsland, played five games in red and yellow in 2012 after 89 games at St.Kilda from 2005-11, and Horsley, from Kalgoorlie via WAFL club Subiaco,  played 14 SUNS games in 2012-13.

Thirteen clubs will have a Queensland ‘flavor’ this year – all but Carlton, Essendon, GWS, Sydney and St.Kilda – and Carlton are coached by Queensland’s all-time #1 player Michael Voss.   

A total of 47 players with a hyphenated name have played in the AFL since a 17-year-old Gordon Ross-Soden played his one and only game for Essendon in 1906.

The #1 ticket-holder of the Hyphen Club is Melbourne Team of the Century centre half forward and Australian Football Hall of Famer  Ivor Warne-Smith, who played 146 games for Melbourne in 1919 and from 1925-32. He won a flag in 1926, claimed the Brownlow Medal in 1926 and 1928, was Demons captain from 1928-31, and fought in World War 1 and World War 11.

Will Hoskin-Elliott, a foundation player at GWS in 2012 and a premiership team member at Collingwood in 2023, heads the Hyphen Club games list at 242, from current Port Adelaide player Darcy Byrne-Jones (221) and Adelaide’s Alex Neal-Bullen (201).

Queensland Football Hall of Famer Che Cockatoo-Collins, born in Brisbane, raised in Cairns and a 160-gamer at Essendon and Port Adelaide from 1994-2003, is the most experienced Queensland member of the Hyphen Club. And with twin brothers David and Donald, who played at Melbourne, makes up the entire Queensland ‘division’ of the Hyphen Club.

Miles-Wrency will be hoping to join this special group.