GIANTS look to homegrown talent
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph
By Tyson Otto
The GWS Giants will field eight players from country NSW and ACT in 2013 with the club set to add two more bush babies to their list as the first graduates from their million-dollar academy.
The club will promote 18-year-old NSW products Zac Williams, from Narrandera, and Joseph Redfern, from Wagga Wagga, drafting the pair through the 2012 AFL rookie draft in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Giants academy manager Lachlan Buzzard believes it is a sign of things to come and expects NSW to explode as a talent pool for AFL clubs in the next few years.
“It gives hope to a lot of kids that there’s a pathway for them,” he said.
In 2012, every player on the club’s rookie list played a game of AFL football and the club is again confident Williams and Redfern can make the huge step to play AFL in their first year as senior players.
Williams, who graduated from Narrandera High School in November, was the only player from NSW to be asked to the annual AFL draft camp in Melbourne and was the best NSW performer at the 2012 Under-18 national championships.
The hard-running Indigenous Australia half-back has been part of the Giants academy since the start of 2011 and moved to Sydney three weeks ago.
The Giants academy and Sydney Swans youth academy were designed in response to the worrying lack of junior talent advancing to AFL level.
Kurt Aylett (Leeton), Josh Bruce (Canberra), Anthony Miles (Howlong), Sam Schulz (Culcairn) and Jacob Townsend (Leeton) are also local products.
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