\n Xavier Duursma says he’s looking forward to lining up on younger brother, and No.1 draft pick, Willem\n <\/p>\n
Willem Duursma during West Coast’s 2026 team photo day at Mineral Resources Park. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
WILLEM Duursma is embracing the pressure and expectation of being West Coast’s prized No.1 draft pick, older brother Xavier says.<\/p>\n
But the talented teenager has found his first pre-season “pretty brutal” as he makes the transition from underage football to training in professional ranks.<\/p>\n
Willem, the fourth Duursma to be on an AFL or AFLW list, has settled into Perth life by staying with West Coast’s other No.1 draft pick, Harley Reid.<\/p>\n
“It’s a massive tag to carry, but he’s a very confident young man, and I think he’s going to really embrace the challenge,” Bombers wingman Xavier said of the expectations on his younger sibling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I know that he’s got a really good support network over there around him; Harley Reid, he’s pretty close with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The Eagles, from everything I’ve heard and everything he’s said to me, they’ve done really well so far looking after him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I always throw arm around him, except when I’m playing him and I’m going to try smack him in the back of the head.”<\/p>\n
Growing up in the Gippsland town of Foster in regional Victoria, Willem has been thrown straight into pre-season of a scorching Perth summer.<\/p>\n
“I speak to him every day, and he’s enjoying the hot weather over there,” Xavier said.<\/p>\n
“It’s been pretty brutal over there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But he’s going well, enjoying it, and it’s been a bit of an eye-opener for him.<\/p>\n
“You obviously go from under underage football and you work hard, but coming up to the elite, pro level is a big jump as well.<\/p>\n
“He’s been able to handle it so far, which is great, but at the same time, it’s a big jump, and every 18-year-old kid has to have that bit of a realisation.”<\/p>\n
Zane, Willem, Yasmin and Xavier Duursma in their club colours at the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Willem, a talented utility, has been flagged to play on the wing, like Xavier, early in his career at the Eagles.<\/p>\n
“I’d love to go out there and find him, hopefully give him his welcome to the AFL moment,” Xavier quipped when asked about the possibility of playing on each other.<\/p>\n
West Coast’s first game of the season is against Gold Coast on March 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xavier Duursma says he’s looking forward to lining up on younger brother, and No.1 draft pick, Willem Willem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-456011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456011","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=456011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}