{"id":641447,"date":"2026-04-30T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641447\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:12:11","slug":"afl-mid-season-draft-prospect-to-make-vfl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641447\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Mid-Season Draft prospect to make VFL debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> Mid-Season Draft prospect Oskar Ainsworth is set to make his long awaited VFL debut for St Kilda on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The talented Western Jets graduate has played a fortnight of local footy to build his loads after a pre-season hamstring injury set him back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ainsworth trialed for a list spot with the Saints in pre-season during the SSP after being narrowly overlooked in last year’s National Draft.<\/p>\n

Ainsworth, Blake Chambers and Tex Wanganeen<\/a> were ultimately unsigned after their training stints, but all accepted state league contracts with the club, with Ainsworth getting only very limited opportunity to prove himself due to the injury.<\/p>\n

Several clubs including the Saints have been tracking him and are keen how he handles the step up to VFL footy after a strong finish to 2025 in the Talent League as a powerful forward.<\/p>\n

“Oskar is a strong marking target and goal kicking threat who can also go through the midfield at stages,” coach Brendon Goddard<\/a> said of Ainsworth following his pre-season signature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ainsworth will get three games to prove his capability ahead of the Mid-Season Draft, which will be held on Tuesday May 26.<\/p>\n

The teenager models his game on Patrick Dangerfield<\/a> and had a high-level basketball background before prioritising footy from 2024 onwards.<\/p>\n

\"ainsworth\"Western Jets forward Oskar Ainsworth had a productive 2025 season at Coates League level. Photographer: Maddie Green.<\/p>\n

“I’ll bring resilience and determination and will always go at what I want to achieve,” Ainsworth told Zero Hanger ahead of the National Draft last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think as well as that I want to bring loyalty and I think I’m pretty humble and team first so I would do everything with a winning mentality and try and use my strengths to help the team win.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty unique and versatile being able to play taller than my position and impact like a tall and also use my speed like a small so I think I’m a hard matchup.”<\/p>\n

The Saints are understood to have also shown interest in Tasmanian VFL player Jaxon Artemis, who is one of this year’s leading prospects.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s St Kilda VFL match will also hold gravity for fans, with Max King to play his second match back from his long term injury and Lance Collard<\/a> returning to action after his controversial homophobia ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL Mid-Season Draft prospect Oskar Ainsworth is set to make his long awaited VFL debut for St Kilda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-641447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641447","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=641447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}