![\"Heath](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b1862e847c0bb42abe9f762843ff80ed086f6d08.jpg\")
Camera IconHeath Mellody has impressed for WA\u2019s under-18 side. Credit: Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\nRight now, Heath Mellody may not have the highest profile among WA\u2019s crop of potential AFL draftees.<\/p>\n
Unlike many of his teammates in the State\u2019s under-18 side, the 17-year-old is not the son or brother of a top-level footballer, nor is he linked to either West Coast or Fremantle\u2019s Next Generation Academies.<\/p>\n
Purely on the strength of his own ability, the classy Claremont junior has established himself as one of WA\u2019s very best prospects and a strong chance to be an early selection in the draft.<\/p>\n
Mellody has been among the State\u2019s strongest performers in the ongoing under-18 national championships, standing out with his pinpoint kicking and clean skills.<\/p>\n
A half-back who also has scope to play through the midfield, the near-consensus view among online mock drafts is that he will be one of the first 15 players to have their name called in November.<\/p>\n
Mellody told The West Australian he tried his best to avoid the scuttlebutt and speculation \u2014 but that task was made tougher by well-meaning mates regularly sending it through to him on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is cool to see that, but there\u2019s still so much time left. I don\u2019t want to get complacent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit laid-back, I don\u2019t really over-think too much.<\/p>\n
Camera IconHeath Mellody has impressed for WA\u2019s under-18 side. Credit: Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s there, it\u2019s hard to hide it, but I try not to focus on it at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just try to have fun while I\u2019m playing, there\u2019s no point playing if you\u2019re not enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many top prospects, Mellody has had his loyalties split between a number of different teams this year, having represented the AFL Academy, the Tigers in the WAFL\u2019s pre-season, WA\u2019s under-18s and Hale in the Public Schools Association competition.<\/p>\n
Mellody admitted the constant shuffle between sides had been \u201ca bit of a challenge\u201d which he felt he had \u201chandled pretty well\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a jump from PSA to State, and then I haven\u2019t got too much in for Claremont this year, but I feel like I\u2019ve managed to stay involved in all three of those teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit difficult, but the point of it is all the same. You just want to get the best out of yourself, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sport.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ce63ac11817a1d5eba676fbbf398bae220417f51.jpg\")
Camera IconSport. Football. WA under-18s footballer Heath Mellody before training in Tuart Hill. Credit: The West Australian<\/p>\n
While Mellody\u2019s father Martin never broke into the AFL, the legendary State league footballer did everything but. Either side of dominating the VFA and SANFL, the brilliant midfielder won three best and fairest awards in his three years with East Fremantle, which included their 1998 premiership.<\/p>\n
Mellody said he was glad his parent had not tried to serve as another coach and had instead focused on being as supportive as he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just let me go on my own path, which has been good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t overload me with too much feedback \u2014 I\u2019m getting so much feedback here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mellody has already had one chance to integrate into an AFL system, having spent part of the summer training with Fremantle as part of his AFL Academy duties.<\/p>\n
The die-hard Dockers supporter said the experience of getting to work alongside people he had grown up admiring was \u201csurreal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of players that really took me under their wing and guided me through training, which was awesome,\u201d Mellody said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHayden Young, Caleb Serong, who are obviously superstars of the game \u2014 it was just so cool, learning off them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right now, Heath Mellody may not have the highest profile among WA\u2019s crop of potential AFL draftees. Unlike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,588,85,36052],"class_list":["post-780437","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-sport","tag-sports","tag-wafl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780437","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=780437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}