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Ashcroft holding his knee in round 19 of the 2023 season. His ruptured anterior cruciate ligament meant 10 months off football.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
You might say this means Will Ashcroft has had a pretty blessed life, and you wouldn\u2019t be wrong. Eldest child of former Lions triple premiership player Marcus Ashcroft<\/a> and PE teacher Bekky, Ashcroft has been marinated in sport his whole life. Indeed, been a star his whole life: winning at school swimming and athletics, captaining his Gold Coast school\u2019s rugby union team, moving south in year 10 to Melbourne\u2019s Brighton Grammar, where two years later he was footy co-captain and best-and-fairest. Leading the U18s Aussie rules team, the Sandringham Dragons, to grand final victory in 2022, captaining the U18 All-Australian team that year.<\/p>\n Drafted to his father\u2019s old club, the Brisbane Lions, for a hotly anticipated 2023 debut, playing every match in the first half of that season, gunning for the 2023 Rising Star award. Then: a fleeting moment of bad luck, one necessitating a knee reconstruction and the best part of a year off footy.<\/p>\n Read more: This is the part of parenting no one warned me about<\/a><\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing about Will Ashcroft. He\u2019s been preternaturally determined his whole life, too. Even accounting for natural talent and familial advantages, those who know him say he\u2019s always been unusually focused, competitive, disciplined. He launched his own training app at 17, for goodness sake, to help fellow teens get fitter, healthier and draft-ready. Teens less advantaged than himself. Most athletes start thinking of this kind of career extension near the end of their playing life, not the beginning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he did his ACL, I knew it wouldn\u2019t be through lack of preparation,\u201d says Ben White, the Aussie rules coach at Brighton Grammar when Ashcroft arrived. Ashcroft was on the younger side of his year 10 cohort, arguably too young to select for the firsts, which would mean playing with and against year 12s. \u201cBut he was just so professional, and wanted it so badly, he was able to do everything we asked of him,\u201d says White, \u201cand that got him into the team.\u201d<\/p>\n All this means that while Ashcroft never took success for granted, nor did he think that if you did the hard yards, you wouldn\u2019t be rewarded. So as counterintuitive as it sounds, tearing his ACL in his first season as a professional footballer provided him with an important life lesson: that even when you do everything required of you, then 50 per cent more because you\u2019re that kind of kid, bad things can happen. Control really is an illusion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was probably the toughest moment of my life at that point,\u201d Ashcroft concedes as we chat in the backyard of his Brisbane home. \u201cNot just because it was football but because of the naivety I had around injury, and the bad things that can happen to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Good things can come from bad, though; as life coaches like to say, it\u2019s not what happens to you but how you deal with it that counts. In Ashcroft\u2019s case, within 10 months he was ready to play again, and a few months later, he\u2019d not only helped the Lions secure the 2024 grand final but won the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground. The following year he did it all again: playing such a pivotal role in the Lions 2025 grand final win that he again won the Norm Smith<\/a>. This makes Ashcroft only the third player in AFL history, and the youngest, at 21, to win consecutive Norm Smith medals.<\/p>\n Ashcroft is the youngest AFL player to win consecutive Norm Smith Medals, in his case in 2024 and 2025. Only two others have achieved the feat.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done my own ACL, and I tell you, the demons can take two years to get over,\u201d says Mark Wheeler, talent lead manager at the Sandringham Dragons when Ashcroft played there. \u201cTo get through the process and get back to the mindset that he could win the Norm Smith only months after returning to play \u2013 that\u2019s the dedication bit. That\u2019s the Will I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to learn from the Will Ashcroft story. About how a top athlete gets built. About the multiple micro-advantages that come from being part of a football family, and part of a close, stable family unit. About where the fierce determination to succeed comes from \u2013 because there are plenty of former players whose kids don\u2019t reach great heights. And in a sport that talks ad infinitum about footballer fathers and their footy-playing sons, about the role of a mother, specifically Bekky Ashcroft, in helping shape a kid with talent. In her case, three kids: middle child Levi, now 19, joined the Lions last year, and also played in the grand final, while daughter Lucy, 16, is a top netballer and footballer, already in the Lions Academy and expected to be drafted to the AFLW in 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were raised knowing that professional sport is 95 per cent very difficult and 5 per cent glory \u2013 if you\u2019re very lucky,\u201d says no-nonsense Bekky, who multitasks talking to Good Weekend with her brisk morning walk. \u201cThey\u2019ve all known that from a young age. It\u2019s not the public perception of sport but it is the reality.\u201d Another reality: with the equivalent of only two full seasons under his belt, Will Ashcroft is shaping up as one of the out-of-the-box talents of his generation of AFL players.<\/p>\n Will Ashcroft has cut off his mullet. It\u2019s one of the first things I notice when I arrive at the Brisbane home he bought in 2024 and shares with brother Levi and best mate Jimmy Creighton. It\u2019s late 2025, and we\u2019re sitting in the small backyard where there\u2019s a pool, a sauna and an ice-bath \u2013 the accoutrements of the professional athlete\u2019s life. I notice some tattoos poking out from his shorts, among them a lion\u2019s head with the years 2024 and 2025 under it. No explanation needed. There are others, too, but he doesn\u2019t want to talk about them. This naturally makes me more intrigued but Ashcroft isn\u2019t budging. This is a young man who knows his mind.<\/p>\n The mullet was one of his defining characteristics, flowing long and blond down his neck as he chased the ball, weaving between players, kicking for goal. His generation is different enough to his father\u2019s for him to agree without embarrassment that yes, he did occasionally dye it. \u201cI was due for a change,\u201d he says when I express surprise about the chop. \u201cHopefully I timed it so it\u2019ll grow out for the next season.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashcroft, who cut off his famed mullet over summer, is partial to fashion.Credit: Paul Harris<\/p>\n It\u2019s a neat and tidy home, reflecting Ashcroft\u2019s penchant for things being just so. Dishes left on the benchtop and shoes in the hallway displease him; he drinks only occasionally, and his control reaches new heights when it comes to cooking steak (on the barbecue, then finished off in a pan). \u201cI\u2019m very competitive but Will takes it to a whole new level,\u201d says Creighton with a laugh. \u201cSometimes you want to relax but with Will, there\u2019s always something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Letting his hair down involves playing golf with Levi and other Lions (the brothers hit off single digits), chilling at the beach, competing on PlayStation and playing guitar, which he learnt at school and is determined to get better at. After the grand final, he went to Hamilton Island with his then-girlfriend of 18 months, Summer Finn, to Melbourne for the races, and to Tassie for \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 golf.<\/p>\n He\u2019s into fashion, too, sharing looks he finds on social media with mates like fellow Lions Charlie Cameron and Kai Lohmann. When I ask whose style he admires, he thinks for a minute, then names Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. When I look up the National Basketball Association star later, I find images of him in a white fur coat with dark shades, multiple silver necklaces and a skull cap. This is hard to square with the 21-year-old in front of me, who\u2019s dressed for the Brisbane summer in a striped T-shirt and shorts, utilitarian Apple Watch on wrist. That\u2019s OK, though; at 21, we\u2019re all trying to work out who we are, what style fits us. And while I can\u2019t see Ashcroft in a white fur any time soon, I like that he likes how it looks on Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n Cool cat: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of 2025 NBA champions Oklahoma City Thunder. Ashcroft and his Lions mates are big fans of the basketballer\u2019s style.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n I ponder whether today\u2019s players are more in touch with their metrosexual side than previous generations and whether this could signal a shift away from the all-too-regular reports of bad behaviour that beset the league. You know, the cases of homophobia, racism and sexism that periodically show up in the news. Then comes the AFL scandal of the summer, of Brisbane Lions co-captain Lachie Neale stepping down from his leadership role after a very public \u2013 and rumour-laden \u2013 breakup with wife Jules. I\u2019m reminded that fashion is simply fashion. Human relations? They\u2019re an entirely different, and infinitely more complex, thing.<\/p>\n I wonder how the public airing of private issues affects team morale. When I ask Ashcroft about the Neales\u2019 split in January, he says with media-trained aplomb that it\u2019s a personal matter for Neale and his family. \u201cWe\u2019re getting around him and moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Then comes news of two other Lions relationship splits over summer, including Ashcroft\u2019s own. By late January, Ashcroft\u2019s ex is making social media posts like \u201cHappiness suits me better\u201d, and accompanying another post with the Taylor Swift song, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. When asked by a follower on Instagram \u201cwhere\u2019s will [sic]\u201c, she replies, \u201con his high horse\u201d.<\/p>\n All this is dutifully reported by the media. As Jules Neale posts images of herself living her best post-split life<\/a>, it becomes clear that today\u2019s wives and girlfriends will not go quietly. Social media has changed all that, giving them a power previous generations of AFL partners never had. Coach Chris Fagan speaks publicly about the importance of character and accountability among his tribe, and Ashcroft tells Good Weekend he doesn\u2019t want to discuss his ex-girlfriend\u2019s posts \u2013 they\u2019re her thing, not his.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but shudder with relief that social media wasn\u2019t around when I was 21, falling in and out of love, trying different partners on for size. Making mistakes, learning right from wrong. Growing up without social media \u2013 and without the floodlights of fame.<\/p>\n As pre-season training gets underway and the March 2026 season opener approaches, one thing becomes crystal-clear: the Lions have left any winners\u2032 glow firmly back in 2025.<\/p>\n Elsewhere over summer, Will Ashcroft spent a week working with a trainer at Aspetar, a sports medicine facility in Doha, Qatar. It was his idea to go and the Lions supported it, a reward, perhaps, for the Norm Smith wins. \u201cA lot of it was around turning on and activating different muscle groups that turn off when I move,\u201d he explains when I ask what he did there. \u201cMy raw numbers are all about power and speed but this was about how to make that more efficient. My quads are dominant, so how to switch on my glutes, that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n This commitment to doing more than the norm was apparent to Ben White when Ashcroft arrived at Brighton Grammar. \u201cI\u2019d regularly see him in the gym by himself, rolling, stretching, doing strength work,\u201d White says. \u201cHe was highly motivated from day one to make the AFL.\u201d Ashcroft would pepper White and other staff with questions \u2013 \u201che was very keen to get feedback on how he could improve\u201d \u2013 an attribute his mother says has long been there. \u201cHe was always very curious, and he\u2019s an exceptional listener, you don\u2019t need to say something twice,\u201d she says. Marcus adds that their eldest \u201cdoesn\u2019t think he knows everything\u201d and was mentally tough from an early age. \u201cHe likes to work on himself every day, especially when it comes to his footy,\u201d Marcus says. \u201cWhen you have that mindset and don\u2019t take anything for granted, you\u2019re half a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n Marcus and Bekky, who both grew up on the Gold Coast, made a conscious decision not to have kids until Marcus\u2019s playing days were over. \u201cIt can be a selfish thing to do, this football life, so we wanted to wait,\u201d he says. By the time their kids came along, he was football GM for the Gold Coast Suns. The Ashcroft kids were in and out of the Suns rooms, meeting players, kicking the ball around with pros, some of whom were billeted with the family upon arrival in Queensland. Ashcroft and Levi idolised Gary Ablett jnr, went on family holidays with their father\u2019s former teammates Chris and Brad Scott, and attended every grand final Ashcroft can remember \u201cuntil I played in one\u201d. All this counts in inestimable ways, says The Age\u2019s chief football writer, Jake Niall, who points to similar advantages Nick and Josh Daicos would have had, growing up as the sons of Collingwood great Peter.<\/p>\n Ashcroft agrees immersion from a young age probably played a role in his development, albeit a hard-to-quantify one. \u201cSeeing what they do pre-game, post-game, their preparation, review,\u201d he reflects. \u201cYou\u2019re not taking a whole lot in at that age but you do get accustomed to what it might be like if you get there.\u201d<\/p>\n That helps explain why he\u2019s never felt debilitating nerves around football but did feel them in solo pursuits like athletics, and is seen as a big-game player who lifts in important matches. \u201cI love the pressure and the stakes,\u201d he says of finals time. \u201cThe smell of the grass, the crowds, the atmosphere\u2009\u2026\u2009every contest, there\u2019s a bit more of a price on it.\u201d<\/p>\n The other thing about the Ashcroft kids was they did all types of sports. Athletics, swimming, gymnastics, rugby union, golf \u2013 whatever was on offer. \u201cThe skills people think are a fluke, I always say they\u2019re the result of playing many different sports as they were growing up,\u201d says Bekky, who swam and ran at state level but says she was never at the level of her husband or kids. As a PE teacher, her advice at parent-teacher interviews is to hold off specialising too early. \u201cGet your kids exposed to as many different types of things for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashcroft played many different sports as a kid, which his mother credits with helping finesse his sporting skills.Credit: Courtesy of Will Ashcroft<\/p>\n It\u2019s good advice that\u2019s increasingly recognised in sporting circles. Roger Federer is another who played a lot of sports before focusing on tennis \u2013 and that didn\u2019t work out too badly for him.<\/p>\n Ashcroft\u2019s ability to barge into a pack and extract the ball cleanly might well reflect his multisport background, and Niall says many of the best players today have just this dexterity. But it also reflects practice. As White notes, being clean with a ball is not something you\u2019re born with; it comes about through tireless repetition of the act.<\/p>\n There was tough love, too. Ashcroft recalls an athletics meet when he was 10 or 11: \u201cI had 100- 200- and 400-metre events, and I didn\u2019t want to run.\u201d He\u2019d played rugby on the Friday, footy on the weekend, and by the Monday of the meet, \u201cI was cooked.\u201d His mum was hearing none of it. He ran. \u201cLittle moments like that I remember where it was good to be pushed.\u201d It was Ashcroft himself, though, who chose Aussie rules. \u201cIf you get pushed too hard and told what to do, you burn out,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to find it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018If you get pushed too hard and told what to do, you burn out. You have to find it yourself.\u2019<\/p>\n Will Ashcroft<\/p>\n The Ashcrofts moved to Melbourne in 2019 when Marcus got a talent pathways role with the AFL, pitching their kids into a much bigger, more competitive Aussie rules pond. Then came COVID-19, which hit during Ashcroft\u2019s final two years of school. Many kids were psychologically thrown off course by that unprecedented time, but Ashcroft remained focused on his singular goal of getting drafted, taking gym gear home to train with. \u201cWill was certainly one of the players who didn\u2019t let up,\u201d says White.<\/p>\n Not letting up also defines Ashcroft\u2019s relentless advocacy for brother Levi, then in year 9, to be selected for the firsts when Ashcroft was in year 12 and footy co-captain. \u201cFrom day one of the preseason, he was asking whether I thought Levi would make the team,\u201d White says with a laugh. \u201cThen it got to the start of the season, and he asked again. That question never stopped.\u201d Levi made the team \u2013 of course he did \u2013 in a stop-start season punctuated by lockdowns.<\/p>\n Between school and getting drafted to the Lions, Ashcroft played for the Sandringham Dragons, with brother Levi following him there in due course. Some saw the brothers as a bit FIGJAM (\u201cf— I\u2019m good, just ask me\u201d) but Mark Wheeler admired their focus. \u201cAs a 15- or 16-year-old [Will] was probably acting more like an 18-year-old,\u201d says the Dragons\u2019 then talent lead manager. \u201cHe was elite in his training, on and off the field, right down to weighing his own food.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Ashcroft started a sports management course at Deakin University and launched Wash Performance, a training app for kids aged between 13 and 18. The idea was to create a digital \u201ccoach in your pocket\u201d that helps kids get fitter and healthier, off social media and, if it\u2019s their thing, get drafted. \u201cWhen I was young I was in the best programs, went to a great school, had really good experiences and exposure to AFL clubs because of what Mum and Dad provided, but not all kids have that,\u201d says Ashcroft. \u201cKids who might live remotely, or not have enough money to be in the best programs or the best schools, don\u2019t have the facilities but want to improve.\u201d Ashcroft is the face of Wash, with Jimmy Creighton its head of operations and online coach. The app is about to be relaunched, suggesting it\u2019s not yet a serious money-spinner, but new investors and plans to expand it into other sports suggest they think it one day could be. Either way, it\u2019s a savvy play that speaks to its founder\u2019s leadership chops, desire to help others and build a business \u2013 and eye already on the longer term.<\/p>\n Bekky Ashcroft wasn\u2019t meant to be in Brisbane on Saturday for round 19 of the 2023 season. During Ashcroft\u2019s first season with the Lions, the family stayed in Melbourne, as Levi and Lucy were still at school. But for some reason \u2013 call it mother\u2019s intuition or just dumb luck \u2013 she made a last-minute decision to fly up for the match. She recalls watching from the stands as her son\u2019s ACL ruptured. \u201cWe\u2019ve been around footy long enough to know that when that type of thing happens, it\u2019s pretty devastating,\u201d she says. She went to the rooms after the match. \u201cHe was with the medical staff, inconsolable.\u201d<\/p>\n They were told they\u2019d have to wait until Monday to get a scan, but her son was having none of it. By 7.30am the next day they were driving to Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, \u201cthe only place that would do a scan on a Sunday\u201d. They got the call confirming the worst on the drive back and had to pull over for a moment to process it. A day later they were en route to Melbourne, where within the week, Ashcroft would have reconstruction surgery, a few weeks after which he returned to Brisbane for the long recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was mostly just anger,\u201d says Ashcroft of his feelings after his ACL injury.Credit: Courtesy of Will Ashcroft<\/p>\n It must have been excruciating, watching his team march towards the 2023 grand final, then lose it, without being part of it. I ask Ashcroft what feelings were roiling around his head at the time. \u201cIt was mostly just anger,\u201d he says candidly. \u201cI had a vision in my mind of what my first year would look like. I was going to do this, achieve that, play every game, hopefully play in a premiership, win the Rising Star award. Things I was so locked in on\u2009\u2026\u2009then it was all gone, bang. I thought, \u2018This is not fair, I shouldn\u2019t be in this position.\u2019\u2006\u201d<\/p>\n Marcus recalls how difficult it was for the family to be in Melbourne while Ashcroft was recuperating more than 1700 kilometres away. \u201cThe mental battles he went through, it was hard to be away from him for those.\u201d It was Bekky who broke Ashcroft out of it. \u201cI said to him, \u2018You can be angry all you like, but there are people who get a tickle in their throat, or a headache, and go to the doctor and get a terminal diagnosis.\u2019\u2009\u201d You don\u2019t have a terminal diagnosis, she told her son. \u201cYes, it\u2019s one of the worst things that can happen to an AFL player, but let\u2019s go see some people who have received a really bad diagnosis, and see what real anger and sadness looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n So began Ashcroft\u2019s relationship with the Children\u2019s Hospital Foundation in Brisbane, which extended after his rehabilitation to the auctioning-off of his 2024 grand final boots. Inga Tracey, head of strategic marketing and communications at the foundation, says the boots auction was Ashcroft\u2019s idea, raising more than $6000, and that he\u2019s one of their most engaged ambassadors, visiting every few months. \u201cHe\u2019ll bring in posters and footballs, have a chat, play Uno,\u201d she says. \u201cWe deal with the sickest kids in Queensland. Most of them are bed-bound and it might be the only fun thing they get to do in a week.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashcroft with (from left) Cooper Hateley, Taj Juster, Sam Matthews and Malika Toghill at the Queensland Children\u2019s Hospital ahead of the auction of his 2024 grand final boots to raise money for sick children.Credit: Adam Head<\/p>\n I tell Ashcroft his mum sounds pretty wise, getting him out of his head like that. He agrees. \u201cDad\u2019s approach to football and life is very go, go, go, and I probably got a lot of that from him,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat Mum does really well is put all that into perspective. She helps me look at things from a different angle and appreciate things outside football.\u201d<\/p>\n Jimmy Creighton was there for his friend during the ACL injury, too. Creighton knew something about injury: he suffered a C2 avulsion fracture playing football when he and Ashcroft were teens, and spent six months in a neck brace. \u201cHe and his family helped a lot,\u201d Creighton says. \u201cWill and I would swim, go to the gym together, play basketball. That really set up the friendship.\u201d Creighton returned the favour when Ashcroft did his ACL, flying to Melbourne the weekend after his surgery. \u201cI helped him put his shoes on, we\u2019d go to cafes,\u201d he says. \u201cI just wanted to distract him from what he was feeling at the time.\u201d Knowing how quickly life can change is something the two now share.<\/p>\n Ashcroft\u2019s mum helped get him out of his self-pity after his ACL injury, reminding him, \u201cthere are people who \u2026 go to the doctor and get a terminal diagnosis.\u201dCredit: Paul Harris<\/p>\n![\"Ashcroft](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/57e384d5c0da4bb54e6281d863d11aa86f16c4df.jpeg\")
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