thrived on the national stage for Vic Country<\/a>, named at full-back in the Under 18 All-Australian side after averaging 15.3 disposals and a competition-high 3.5 intercept marks, while he went at 89 per cent efficiency by foot.<\/p>\nHe played on a variety of forwards, including WA\u2019s Charlie Banfield (190cm), SA\u2019s Mitch Marsh (191cm), Allies\u2019 Max King (191cm) and Vic Metro\u2019s Zac McCarthy (199cm).<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty honoured to be able to wear the Big V this year. I remember the first presentation, just getting my jersey and being named the vice-captain \u2013 I was pretty surprised about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first game, obviously a bit nervous and I was like \u2018this is the real deal\u2019. But I warmed into the game and just went from there and I just felt comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the challenge as well (of playing against different sized forwards). It also helps me and helps recruiters see that I can play on different players.<\/p>\n
Ralphy’s trade update on big name Pies | 02:07<\/p>\n
Dean said he was \u201csuper happy\u201d with his consistent and, crucially, injury-free draft year, adding he was confident he was prepared for full-time AFL professional footballer life.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the game against Vic Metro, I thought a bit that I could step up to the next level and overall through the nationals. Probably playing locally too playing senior men\u2019s footy, it\u2019s got me a bit more comfortable and used to the bigger bodies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s going to be a grind, nothing\u2019s ever easy, but I\u2019m willing to take on the challenge and I love a bit of a challenge. It\u2019s going to be hard to work, but I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Star father-son prospect Harry Dean says it would be \u201cpretty special\u201d to play for Carlton, which has provided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,68971,64,63,689,55,639,3423,33342,120005,107837,1653,120003,120008,11231,120002,2526,2105,9130,2536,120007,120006,12188,6179,681,3523,120009,3502,647,3453,93798,677,120001,70479,3495,85,120004,645,1117,77684,28457,3485,660,3482,3488],"class_list":["post-188992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-agency-compensation-selections","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-blues-academy","tag-carlton-academy","tag-charlie-banfield","tag-cody-walker","tag-compo-picks","tag-draft-combine","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-father-son-academy","tag-father-son-prospect","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-harry-dean","tag-harry-dean-carlton","tag-helps-recruiters","tag-intercept-marks","tag-jack-silvagni","tag-jon-ralph","tag-key-defender","tag-launch-back","tag-max-king","tag-melbourne","tag-mitch-marsh","tag-national-draft-combine","tag-oceania","tag-professional-footballer-life","tag-real-deal","tag-shoulder-injury","tag-sports","tag-star-father-son-prospect","tag-telstra-corporation-limited","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-trade-interest","tag-trade-update","tag-vic-country","tag-victoria","tag-victoria-country","tag-zac-mccarthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}