{"id":341623,"date":"2025-12-11T20:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341623\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:57:11","slug":"one-thing-your-afl-club-should-be-excited-for-in-2026-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341623\/","title":{"rendered":"ONE thing your AFL club should be excited for in 2026 &#8211; AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/introducing-myteam-your-club-your-news-your-way-166070\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"327\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"my-team-banner promo-article-banner\" id=\"my-team-banner\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764633130_359_ZH-InArticleMyTeamLink.png.webp.webp\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The best part about entering new footy season is that it&#8217;s a fresh slate &#8211; every club starts from zero.<\/p>\n<p>Optimism is high as fans relish in the prospect of their club making some form of improvement on last year, whether that&#8217;s contending for a premiership, returning to September action, or seeing young players blossom into genuine superstars to push a rebuild forward.<\/p>\n<p>Whether they&#8217;ve just won back-to-back premierships or are coming off a one-win campaign, each club has something to look forward to next year.<\/p>\n<p>So, here&#8217;s one thing your favourite club should be excited about entering the new year.<\/p>\n<p>Back<\/p>\n<p>1 &#8211; Adelaide2 &#8211; Brisbane3 &#8211; Carlton4 &#8211; Collingwood5 &#8211; Essendon6 &#8211; Fremantle7 &#8211; Geelong8 &#8211; Gold Coast9 &#8211; GWS10 &#8211; Hawthorn11 &#8211; Melbourne12 &#8211; North Melbourne13 &#8211; Port Adelaide14 &#8211; Richmond15 &#8211; St Kilda16 &#8211; Sydney17 &#8211; West Coast18 &#8211; Western Bulldogs<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"td-smart-list-button td-smart-next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/one-thing-your-afl-club-should-be-excited-for-in-2026-171599\/2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Next<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Adelaide<\/p>\n<p>Sid Draper&#8217;s AFL emergence<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-157522\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Every AFL team's best 23 for 2025: Adelaide Crows\" width=\"1906\" height=\"1410\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GefbG5SacAATOza.jpeg.webp.webp\"\/>Sid Draper of the Adelaide Crows at training in 2024 (Image via Adelaide FC)<\/p>\n<p>Since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/sid-draper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sid Draper<\/a> was taken fourth overall in the 2024 National Draft, Crows fans have been eagerly awaiting his emergence at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> level.<\/p>\n<p>However, six games spent as starting substitute and just four in the best 22 prevented South Australia from seeing the best of their prized rising star candidate, as the 19-year-old managed a double-digit disposal game just once in 10 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>However, Draper was a class above his peers at SANFL level, averaging the second-most disposals per game for a player under 21 years of age (minimum 10 games played) and leading the reserves in score involvements per game (3.8).<\/p>\n<p>The Crows&#8217; failure to add depth to their midfield group via the trade period means there&#8217;s an opportunity for Draper to establish himself in the senior side in 2026 and, should he have a strong pre-season, could be named in the Crows&#8217; best 23 in Round 1.<\/p>\n<p>Back<\/p>\n<p>1 &#8211; Adelaide2 &#8211; Brisbane3 &#8211; Carlton4 &#8211; Collingwood5 &#8211; Essendon6 &#8211; Fremantle7 &#8211; Geelong8 &#8211; Gold Coast9 &#8211; GWS10 &#8211; Hawthorn11 &#8211; Melbourne12 &#8211; North Melbourne13 &#8211; Port Adelaide14 &#8211; Richmond15 &#8211; St Kilda16 &#8211; Sydney17 &#8211; West Coast18 &#8211; Western Bulldogs<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"td-smart-list-button td-smart-next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/one-thing-your-afl-club-should-be-excited-for-in-2026-171599\/2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Next<\/a>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; The best part about entering new footy season is that it&#8217;s a fresh slate &#8211; every&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-341623","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\/341623","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=341623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}