{"id":225153,"date":"2025-10-19T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225153\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T13:00:10","slug":"afl-draft-jake-stringer-type-talent-who-could-boost-cats-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225153\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Draft: Jake Stringer type talent who could boost Cats – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AFL Draft<\/a> prospect Jesse Mellor is set to offer Geelong an opportunity it has rarely been afforded in recent years.<\/p>\n

While the club has gained a reputation under respected recruiter Stephen Wells for scouring the country for concealed talent, highlighted by Lawson Humphries<\/a>, taken from the WAFL Reserves and playing in an AFL<\/a> Grand Final two years later; the nucleus of the list for an extended period has been built by keeping locals local.<\/p>\n

The Cats have drafted at least one Geelong Falcon every year since 2013 and bringing those from the region back home underpinned their 2024 premiership list build, with Jeremy Cameron<\/a> the pin-up boy for the Cats being able to sell the lifestyle.<\/p>\n

In the 2025 Trade Period, James Worpel<\/a> followed the well-worn path also taken by Patrick Dangerfield<\/a>, Gary Rohan<\/a>, Jack Bowes<\/a>, Ollie Henry Jack Steven<\/a>, Shaun Higgins<\/a> and Tanner Bruhn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet for all that success, the Cats have never had a true success story out of its Next Generation Academy, which stretches from the Bellarine Peninsula all the way to Cape Otway<\/p>\n

Ted Clohesy<\/a> and Osca Riccardi<\/a> both spent time on the Cats’ list but neither was able to establish themselves in Geelong’s best lineup.<\/p>\n

Geelong will hope that Mellor, a powerful forward in the vein of Jake Stringer<\/a>, can buck that trend.<\/p>\n

Projected as a later pick in the AFL<\/a> National Draft, the Cats will wanrt a bid for the Geelong West junior to come after pick 54 as that would mean the bid doesn’t carry points, so Geelong won’t have to give up capital to list him.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe can play spurts in the midfield, but he’s just so dynamic forward of the ball, because you put a tall on him, he gets you at ground level and he can compete,\u201d Falcons coach Paul Corrigan said of Mellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put a medium sized play is going to get you in the air. So he’s got those characteristics to be able to be a hard match up on forward and sort of that power athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mellor performed when it mattered throughout 2025, putting his name on the map with a six goal trial game for Vic Country against the Young Guns, before averaging two goals per game throughout a productive U18s National Championships, and booting four snags in a final for the Falcons.<\/p>\n

A highly touted junior throughout his career owing to an apt contested and clearance game, the Falcons have had a clear plan in place to diversify his skillset in the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe knock on Jesse was maybe his transitional stuff though the middle of the ground so we went to work with him in his bottom-aged year to make him a bit more versatile,\u201d Corrigan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at his strengths \u2013 raw power, good one-on-one, good vertical jump, strong in the air, very strong at ground level and quick off the mark \u2013 we though the hybrid forward role would suit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting him in stoppages in the front half allowed him to showcase what he could do as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can go into the midfield for impact and show his clearance work but still hit the scoreboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

In Gryan Miers<\/a> and Shaun Mannagh<\/a>, the former who is involved in Geelong’s recruiting team and the latter who had to grind his way onto an AFL<\/a> list, Mellor could have some excellent mentors to learn off should the Cats match a bid.<\/p>\n

While Mellor found himself on highlight reels for some of his flashy moments throughout 2025, there were two clear, less obvious elements that he lifted to round off his skillset.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis biggest growth I think was his leadership \u2013 because he was with us for the whole year, he gave a lot to the team,\u201d Corrigan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf things weren’t working, he just went to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe improved his defensive aspects of his game, when you look at his tackles in the front half<\/p>\n

\u201cHis hard work has paid off which gives him a great chance at the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL Draft prospect Jesse Mellor is set to offer Geelong an opportunity it has rarely been afforded in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-225153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225153","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=225153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}