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GROWING UP WITH AN INTANGIBLE DRAFT ADVANTAGE<\/p>\n
Ben Waterworth: Willem, we\u2019re here at the MCG with your all your draft colleagues a month out from the draft, does it kick in that your life is about to change substantially?<\/p>\n
Willem Duursma: It\u2019s a pretty special moment and I think that most important part is about embracing it. I think understanding that you\u2019re here for a reason and you\u2019re with the best players in Australia, so not to take it for granted. But, also to see the ground you\u2019re at, you take it as inspiration and something to aspire to \u2014 to actually be here on the last Saturday in September. <\/p>\n
BW: Has it always been the dream to be out here one day?<\/p>\n
WD: Yeah, it\u2019s been a pretty big dream of mine \u2014 and I think it\u2019s been pretty self-driven. Mum and Dad have been pretty good with letting us do whatever we want. I could choose my own path, but I think that at the end of the day, through school basketball and all that sort of stuff, footy has just been my favourite out of all of them. Obviously, it\u2019s something I\u2019ve always aspired to, to choose footy. <\/p>\n
BW: What do you love about footy?<\/p>\n
WD: I just love the connection with the teammates, I love the feeling of kicking a goal, that\u2019s always just an unreal feeling. I also think the biggest thing for me is the relationships you build along the way and the players you meet. The opponents you play against, you get to play against the best. Also coaches; I think I just enjoy all the factors of the game.<\/p>\n
BW: Tell me about Foster, your home town, and what it means to you.<\/p>\n
WD: Foster is very special to me. They got up and won the flag this year in the Mid Gippsland League, so they\u2019re pretty happy. They stopped Fish Creek from a three-peat, so that\u2019s very good news. But Foster has been unreal for pretty much all of us kids going through. It\u2019s an unreal town with such a tight community. They always care about you more as a person than as a player. It\u2019s something that some of these Metro kids and those from other states just don\u2019t really get to experience with how good these little country towns are.<\/p>\n
BW: That was my next question, how appreciative are you having grown up in a town like Foster compared to the suburbs of Melbourne for instance?<\/p>\n
WD: You have so many more relationships. You see these older people, younger people \u2026 you get a taste of pretty much everything. You get a bit more freedom to do what you want (and) a bit more independence, so it\u2019s really nice.<\/p>\n
Xavier, Yasmin and Zane Duursma so far have 154 games of experience at the top level between them.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
WXYZ \u2014 WILLEM, XAVIER, YASMIN AND ZANE<\/p>\n
BW: I can only imagine your backyard battle experiences where you\u2019re the youngest child \u2026<\/p>\n
WD: I was definitely the smallest out there. I was getting pushed around a fair bit \u2014 even by \u2018Yazzy\u2019 (older sister). Yazzy would have a crack at me a fair bit, but yeah, as the youngest growing up, you\u2019ve gotta learn to cop it a lot\u2026 now that I\u2019m bigger than all of them, I\u2019d like to see them try now!<\/p>\n
BW: You are closest in age to brother Zane, is he the one that beat up on you the most? Or did Xavier have a crack as well?<\/p>\n
WD: I think they all had their fair share! But it was all in good spirits, so it didn\u2019t really get to me too much. Being the youngest, you learn how to deal with it a lot and honestly you\u2019re probably better for it.<\/p>\n
BW: Can you remember a time where it ended in tears in the backyard?<\/p>\n
WD: Yeah, there\u2019s been a lot of tears in the backyard. I got shoved over by Zane and split my head on a log playing footy, so that was pretty fun. We\u2019ve certainly had those backyard battles.<\/p>\n
BW: Clearly all of them have gone through what you\u2019re about to go through in different ways. How much do you want to experience it yourself against also leaning into what they\u2019ve experienced?<\/p>\n
WD: I think it really works in my favour seeing them all go through. The main thing is that I\u2019ve got a lot more experience than all these other draftees, which is good, because I\u2019ve seen how they\u2019ve gone after getting drafted. I\u2019ve really learnt how you should carry yourself and go about it after you get drafted. I think that\u2019s a really big advantage for me.<\/p>\n
BW: How should you carry yourself?<\/p>\n
WD: I\u2019m very big on professionalism \u2014 managing your body and stuff. The little things like working as hard as you can at training, being really tight in the team cultures. That sort of thing is really big for you as a player. All these draftees will understand eventually, but I think that I\u2019ve got it downpat now, so I\u2019m ready to go.<\/p>\n
BW: And your parents? A lot of driving kilometres they would have clocked up over the years while trying to balance everyone being everywhere. How appreciative of their support have you been?<\/p>\n
WD: Their support has been unreal. They\u2019ve been through a fair few cars with a lot of kilometres on them, so I think they\u2019d be happy to finally wrap it up with me soon. But yeah, I think it probably won\u2019t stop for them. I think their support will keep going as all of us are in the league. They\u2019ll certainly be loving it and going wherever I am, wherever they are. Whether it\u2019s in Melbourne or interstate, they\u2019ll be happy to go wherever. <\/p>\n
BW: Have they been through a fair few family cars over the years?<\/p>\n
WD: Well, Dad\u2019s just brought a new car the other week, so he\u2019s got another one. We\u2019ve had about three that have gone through it, so yeah, a lot of kilometres!<\/p>\n
The Duursma family celebrate Yasmin (front centre) making for AFLW debut in Round 5 last year for the Carlton Blues against the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos at IKON Park on September 25, 2024 (Photo by Dylan Burns via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
THE DEFINING MOMENT THAT IGNITED HIS 2025<\/p>\n
BW: How do you look back at your 2025 journey?<\/p>\n
WD: It\u2019s been another really big learning year, which is the main part you want to get out of pretty much every year. You want to learn the most you can, especially while you\u2019re young. At the start of the year, my goals were just to be consistent. To start the year, I was really up and down. Really good, but also had some really bad lows. I think about halfway through the year though, I started to just be really consistent. As soon as I got that consistency downpat, the rest just took care of itself with all the accolades that I got. And then, I just started to play really good footy, really consistent footy and show all my strengths.<\/p>\n
BW: Why do you think it changed? Was there a moment where it clicked because of your persistence?<\/p>\n
WD: It was a pretty big mindset change for me. Going into the year, I had a pretty fixed mindset on just being full-time midfield and just wanting to be midfield only. Then I started to realise that sometimes I don\u2019t have to be always in the midfield to have a big impact for my team. Because that\u2019s all I really care about: I just want to win and have a really big impact from my team. It was after the GWV Rebels game, where I just got taken out of the midfield again and I was a bit unhappy. I think I realised that week that I don\u2019t have to be playing in the midfield to have the big impact. After I realised that, I rolled into nationals and then after the nationals, I just kept going. I started to play some really dominant footy, and it was really good.<\/p>\n
BW: I watched that last Vic Metro-Country game and it felt like you were across all thirds of the ground at stages \u2014 and you look confident in all three. Did you feel like it all came together in that last game?<\/p>\n
WD: Definitely. I pretty much left everything out there on the field that last game against Metro. I think it was perfect in the way that I was open to actually making those moves and making those changes. It really helped the team, so that was really good. I started off in the midfield then played a little bit of forward when I was needing a rest. And then when Harry Moon and Harry Dean, our two key defenders, were both gassed and needed a rest, I put my hand up and went down there for the last five minutes of each quarter and try hold it down. Metro had about four key forwards, so it was a really good opportunity. It just showed that it was about the mindset change more than anything, and I was happy to do it, because it worked best for the team. We ended up winning, so it was good.<\/p>\n
BW: Have you always had that versatility to play across any third of the ground? Or is that something that you\u2019ve developed over the years?<\/p>\n
WD: It\u2019s certainly something I\u2019ve developed over my years. Growing up in the juniors, I was always a midfielder and forward. But as I got older, I was still a bit smaller and skinnier than everyone else, so it took me a while to grow up and build up my body. But I had to adapt by going into different roles to still keep playing in these teams that I wanted to play for. I think I had to just accept that I was going to go to half-back or half-forward, or something outside the centre bounce. I\u2019ve really put a bit of emphasis on building up my body this past pre-season, so I\u2019ve done that and I was ready to play in the midfield this year. I think that\u2019s where I play my best footy and so I think I\u2019ve learned versatility over the years because I haven\u2019t been big enough to play midfield all the time, so it\u2019s really helping.<\/p>\n
BW: I saw you play for the AFL Academy against Richmond\u2019s VFL team down at St Kilda earlier this year and you played predominantly off half-back against bigger bodies as well. How much of a learning curve was that?<\/p>\n
WD: I was pretty much playing key defence all day that game, which as a smaller sort of player, you think: \u2018Geez, I\u2019m battling up against some big boys\u2019. I was playing on some resting ruckman sometimes and you\u2019ve just got to understand that you\u2019ve just got to have a crack. The harder you compete, the better you\u2019ll be for it. That really helped me to play against the bigger bodies and especially when I started to play against the Brisbane Lions at Casey in the VFL when I was in the backline \u2014 it was much easier knowing that I had that experience already playing there. That was after like I had the mindset change of having to play wherever. I was much better for it and I had a really good game that day.<\/p>\n
BW: You might double up on the answer a little bit here, but if someone hadn\u2019t seen you play before Willem, how would you describe yourself as a player to them?<\/p>\n
WD: I feel like as a player, I\u2019ve got a really good mix of polish, but also a bit of hard work and grunt about me. I\u2019m not afraid to take a backward step \u2026 as a player, I\u2019m only going to get better. My ceiling\u2019s pretty high, so I\u2019ve still got a lot more to grow.<\/p>\n
Willem Duursma (left) in action for the AFL National Academy against Richmond’s VFL side, being tackled by Tom McCarthy (right) at RSEA Park on April 13, 2025 (Photo by Josh Chadwick via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
AFL\u2019S STAR TRIO WILLEM LOOKS UP TO \u2026 AND RECRUITERS\u2019 MOST COMMON COMPARISON<\/p>\n
BW: Any AFL player that you look up to or model your game on to take bits and pieces out of?<\/p>\n
WD: Marcus Bontempelli, he\u2019s definitely a big one for me. He\u2019s the epitome of that taller midfielder with a bit of polish, speed and skill \u2014 so he\u2019s definitely one that I look up to. Also Will Day and Finn Callaghan, those types as well. Finn Callaghan\u2019s burst and pace, I think I\u2019ve got that as well, so that\u2019s a really good thing to have. Will Day\u2019s not the biggest player out there at all, but he\u2019s just so hard at the contest and I think that\u2019s something that I really took notes off. Especially training with Hawthorn in the pre-season, watching him go at it in pre-season training as hard as he can \u2026 he\u2019s not the biggest out here, but geez he works hard.<\/p>\n
BW: Other scouts that I\u2019ve spoken to have compared you to Brendan Godard in the past. Can you see that? He\u2019s probably before your time a bit, but can you see those comparisons?<\/p>\n
WD: I can certainly see that, but I think that at the end of the day, Goddard was a lot more versatile than I am. I think that I was only really playing backline stuff to fill those roles because I wasn\u2019t big enough to play in the midfield yet. But I think when I\u2019m at my best, I\u2019m playing just purely mid-forward. If I\u2019ve got a nice clear role, I think that\u2019s when I\u2019m at my best as well.<\/p>\n
BW: I\u2019ve spoken a few of your fellow draft prospects and most of them have said that if they had Pick 1, they\u2019d be picking you. Do you ponder that? How much of an honour would it be to go with that first selection?<\/p>\n
WD: Obviously it would be really nice to go Pick 1 and have that accolade. But to be fair, at the end of the day as a person, I don\u2019t really care too much about it. All I really care about is to get the opportunity to be at a club and just show what I\u2019m about. It\u2019d be nice to do that and be Pick 1, but it\u2019s not a necessity for me, so I\u2019m not too phased by it.<\/p>\n
BW: I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been asked about it heaps \u2026 the potential of moving interstate, how mentally prepared are you for that prospect?<\/p>\n
WD: Living as a country boy two and a half hours away from the city, you\u2019re going to pack your bags and move regardless. The more I\u2019ve matured throughout the year, the more I\u2019ve come to terms with the decision of probably moving over to WA. I think I\u2019ve been better for it and the easier I felt. It would be a nice thing to happen, it\u2019d be nice to live over there. It\u2019s pretty cruisy, nice and warm. Hopefully I can get a tan up if I move over there! But yeah, I think I like the idea of WA. And so as a country boy, you\u2019re going to move regardless, so I\u2019m just happy to be wherever to be honest.<\/p>\n
The three AFL stars that Willem bases his game off the most \u2014 Marcus Bontempelli, Finn Callaghan and Will Day.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
THE DRAFT COUNTERPARTS HE SPEAKS HIGHEST OF<\/p>\n
BW: A couple of generic ones, if you had Pick 1 in the draft, who would you be taking?<\/p>\n
WD: It\u2019s a tough one. It\u2019s hard to go past \u2018Duffy\u2019 (Cooper Duff-Tytler), but I\u2019m still split between Duffy and \u2018Dys\u2019 (Dyson Sharp). They\u2019re both two unreal players, so they\u2019ve certainly put their claim out to that as well.<\/p>\n
BW: What traits stand out to you about them both?<\/p>\n
WD: Dyson\u2019s competitiveness definitely stands out. You can maybe make the argument that you\u2019ll find players like Dyson in pretty much any draft, but you can\u2019t find anyone as competitive as him I don\u2019t think \u2014 that\u2019s the main one for him. For Duff, I think his ceiling is really high, so I think if you\u2019re going to draft him on his potential, he could be something really special.<\/p>\n
BW: If there\u2019s a prospect not in the first-round mix but you\u2019d be prepared to invest a first-round pick in, is there a player that comes to mind?<\/p>\n
WD: I\u2019m pretty split between giving Zac Harding a chance and developing into an absolute beast of a ruckman. But I think I might just go with Tommy Matthews from Gippsland Power. He was our captain. He\u2019s a great leader, but he had a tough year with injuries. His best as a small forward is absolutely unreal. To start of the year, he was kicking bags but unfortunately he got injured \u2014 but his best is unreal. He\u2019s ferocious, kicks goals, takes big marks, so he could do anything as a small forward. He\u2019s someone that I\u2019d really like to take a chance on.<\/p>\n
Cooper Duff-Tytler (left) and Dyson Sharp (right) are at the very top end of most draft whiteboards heading into November.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
HIS FIRST MEMORY OF A WEST COAST INTERVIEW \u2026 THAT WAS FOR HIS BROTHER<\/p>\n
BW: How have you found the whole club interview process this year?<\/p>\n
WD: I think the more interviews you have, the more prepared you are for them \u2014 so obviously you get that experience. It\u2019s been pretty nice, experiencing all the different questions and stuff that they asked. They\u2019re all pretty similar, but I think the more confident you are going into those interviews ready to answer their questions directly, the better you are for it.<\/p>\n
BW: Do you have memories of clubs coming up to Foster and interviewing your siblings?<\/p>\n
WD: Yeah, I do actually. Back when Zane was getting drafted he was having some interviews (there). The Eagles recruiter (Rohan O\u2019Brien) who\u2019s at Essendon now, he accidentally got the car bogged in the driveway. Dad had to get some of the teachers from school to come help get him out of the driveway while the interview was happening. So they got the car out for him, it was pretty funny. It turns out that one of the teachers that got him out was a really big Eagles fan, so he had to get looked after with a couple of tickets.<\/p>\n
BW: That\u2019s not a bad pay off! Any questions that have sort of caught you off guard, or made you think a little bit more deeply than others throughout the year?<\/p>\n
WD: I\u2019d say probably (from Carlton): \u2018Your house is on fire, you\u2019ve got three items to take. I said my phone, my laptop \u2014 because I really don\u2019t have to replace them, it\u2019s a bit of a hassle. And then I also said my golf clubs, because I don\u2019t wanna have to replace them either. <\/p>\n
BW: And how do you hit them?<\/p>\n
WD: I go OK. I\u2019m very up and down with my golf. At the minute I\u2019ve been terrible, just because I haven\u2019t played in about five months. But when I\u2019m in my prime over summer, I start to play some pretty good golf. Just absolutely terrible putting though. I can be unreal getting to the green, but soon as I get on the green, anything can happen.<\/p>\n
Willem Duursma (right) of the Gippsland Power celebrates a goal with teammates during the 2025 Coates Talent League Boys Quarter Final between Gippsland Power and Geelong Falcons at Shepley Oval on September 7th, 2025 (Photo by Craig Dooley)Source: Herald Sun<\/p>\n
WHERE WILLEM\u2019S AFL ALLEGIANCE CURRENTLY LIES \u2026 AND THE FINAL WORD ON HIS OWN GAME AHEAD OF 2026<\/p>\n
BW: With so many clubs that you\u2019ve been affiliated to in the past with your family, do you have an AFL team that you follow?<\/p>\n
WD: Well growing up, we barracked for Brisbane, because when Xavier was born, they were winning the flags. So he made us all go for them. As we\u2019ve gotten older, we\u2019ve started to realise that Xavier\u2019s at a club, then Zane\u2019s at a club. Yaz\u2019 there (at Carlton), so I just barrack for a couple of clubs \u2014 I don\u2019t really support one team only. But yeah, growing up we barracked for Brisbane.<\/p>\n
BW: Willem, how ready are you, physically and mentally, to become a full-time, professional AFL football player?<\/p>\n
WD: Mentally is probably the biggest part of being an AFL footballer, and what I\u2019ve noticed the most out of Xavier and the others. I think mentally I\u2019m pretty ready, and ready for that next step up. Work rate, everything \u2014 so I think ready for that. Physically, I think I\u2019ve got a little bit more developing to do, but you can get cracking into the gym so it\u2019ll be good. <\/p>\n
BW: Do you want to play Round 1 next year?<\/p>\n
WD: Yeah, definitely. I think as soon as I get to a club, I think it\u2019ll be a goal of mine to just play as many games as possible in next year, and just have as big an impact as I can for the club immediately. I just want to get in there and get cracking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Willem Duursma, getting drafted to an AFL club hasn\u2019t just been a dream. It\u2019s a lived experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-241953","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\/241953","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=241953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}