{"id":207328,"date":"2025-10-12T07:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207328\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T07:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T07:27:10","slug":"afl-draft-2025-wa-football-state-talent-manager-adam-jones-hopeful-of-healthy-draft-class-after-state-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207328\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Draft 2025: WA Football state talent manager Adam Jones hopeful of healthy draft class after state combine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WA Football state talent manager Adam Jones says a second straight year of double-digit West Australian teenagers going in the AFL draft is not out of the question after some eye-catching results at Sunday\u2019s state combine.<\/p>\n

It comes as Charlie Banfield cemented his status as a draft riser with an impressive, personal-best outing in the 2km time trial.<\/p>\n

The next crop of potential AFL draftees hoping to fulfill lifelong dreams were put through their paces as the underwent physical testing at Shenton College and WA Athletics Stadium.<\/p>\n

Last year, 10 Sandgropers made their way onto AFL lifts at the 2024 draft, down from 14 the year below.<\/p>\n

But the 2024 total came against the backdrop of one recruiting expert\u2019s bold, mid-season claim that no West Australian would be drafted, declaring it the worst year for talent the state had ever seen.<\/p>\n

While Jones was wary of predicting a return to the draft haul of 2023, he was confident the 2025 contingent could match last year\u2019s tally, which was headlined by West Coast\u2019s Bo Allan at 16th.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think the numbers are going to be pretty close. The draft range I\u2019m hoping for is between 8-12,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get anything above 10, it\u2019s going to be a fantastic result, and I think we\u2019re on track for that. Some great results this weekend will certainly help that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of those great results belonged to Banfield and Toby Whan, with the former clocking a personal best 2km run time of 6:08, with the latter just three seconds behind.<\/p>\n

Had those times occurred at the national combine in Melbourne, they would have been good enough for fourth and fifth in the country respectively.<\/p>\n

As the son of Eagles legend Drew, Banfield is a chance to be taken by West Coast as a father-son prospect, but Jones said the Claremont colts star could attract attention from rival clubs.<\/p>\n

\"BanfieldCamera IconBanfield ahead of Blake Kelly. Credit: Stefan Gosatti\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the start of the championships to the end of the season, he just went from strength to strength, and Sunday\u2019s running will help solidify that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt he\u2019ll be under the attention of a number of clubs. West Coast will be hoping there\u2019s no bid put on him \u2014 but the way he\u2019s gone, I won\u2019t be surprised if there is.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Fremantle product Whan\u2019s 2km performance was even more impressive given he is currently rehabbing an AC joint injury he suffered in the WAFL colts grand final.<\/p>\n

\"TobyCamera IconToby Whan. Credit: Stefan Gosatti\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At the indoor speed and agility testing earlier on Sunday, Ryda Luke ran a rapid 2.85 for the 20m sprint to snare the quickest time by any West Australian, while Dale Sutherland turned heads when he broke the eight-second barrier for the agility drill.<\/p>\n

During the AFLW testing, Perth Demons prospect Sienna Timmermans dominated the 2km time trial with a 7:34 run \u2014 44 seconds faster than her nearest competitor on Sunday, and 13 seconds off fellow West Australian Juliet Kelly\u2019s time at the national combine earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe poor girl had to run on her own for the whole race,\u201d Jones said of Timmermans\u2019 stand-out run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she had someone running with her, she might have gone even better, but it was a fantastic time. She should be really pleased with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WA Football state talent manager Adam Jones says a second straight year of double-digit West Australian teenagers going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,30306,64,63,55,639,128221,588,85,7067],"class_list":["post-207328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-draft","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-claremont-football-club","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-west-coast-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207328","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=207328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}