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2025 mid season draft
- Thread starter tigertim
- Start date
Sorry Brodders. My fault. I thought the sarcasm was enough with Mate to the wing.
I'll do better. I promise.
Yeah, I've seen Toner once live and pieces on tv. He's ok but I wouldn't be drafting him just yet .
Should have the right to nominate/pick one player in your vfl system in upcoming draft.
I know (now) it was sarcasm, but I had looked up Ayden McCarroll. In the Young guns game was beaten by the Vic Country ruckman who is a year younger and shorter.
Talls are good but a good ruck is better than a tall ruck
The young man did ok on debut, kicked a couple of nice goals and was the leading tackler on the ground.Bump
Finally been promoted to the seniors has Otis, he's been patiently sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time !!
Don't know why he hasn't been able to crack it for a game until now, his side Swan Districts are on the bottom the ladder, yet to win a game, and he's been playing well.
I'm going to have a look tonight, the game is being televised.
Otis Harvey | WAFL
www.wafl.com.au
Archer May kicked 4 for Subiaco.
WAFL | Western Australian Football League
wafl.com.au
Ridiculous that there’s no access provided tor clubs to draft their vfl players who they’ve developed through the ranks.
Considering someone can be attached to a club through extremely dubious academy rules and the father son system why nothing here?
We get sweet fa from our academy whilst other clubs continually benefit due to afl nominated ‘zones’.
Zones should rotate every few years at least. Ours seems to be barren. Yet our vfl program is where our value lies and we get nothing from it at all.
Something stinks in suburbia.
Considering someone can be attached to a club through extremely dubious academy rules and the father son system why nothing here?
We get sweet fa from our academy whilst other clubs continually benefit due to afl nominated ‘zones’.
Zones should rotate every few years at least. Ours seems to be barren. Yet our vfl program is where our value lies and we get nothing from it at all.
Something stinks in suburbia.
Very good points made in this post that will obviously fall on deaf, incompetent ears in AFL House!!
It is unacceptable that the RFC does not have access to the players they develop within their VFL program - only to have players from that program selected by other clubs
This should be taken up by the club with the AFL in a way that forces change to this unsustainable and unfair AFL program!
Just do away with NGA’s, F/S, zones and any anything else that affects the draft and just make it completely uncompromised. If a player hasn’t been drafted by, say 23, they can be signed up by any club that wants them and has the list space available.Very good points made in this post that will obviously fall on deaf, incompetent ears in AFL House!!
It is unacceptable that the RFC does not have access to the players they develop within their VFL program - only to have players from that program selected by other clubs
This should be taken up by the club with the AFL in a way that forces change to this unsustainable and unfair AFL program!
The current situation is ridiculous and frankly a blight on the competition.
Need a pure small forward to release Seth and hopefully later jasper into the midfield. If Raso projects as being that player, get him.
Does anyone whinging about this even realise that we poach all our VFL players from their existing suburban or country league clubs? We're not actually developing young junior footballers from U12 or U15 age kiddie teams. We're merely giving a little bit of a polish up and opportunity to already established decent quality footballers.
The VFL side is kind of like an academy. Yes?Very good points made in this post that will obviously fall on deaf, incompetent ears in AFL House!!
It is unacceptable that the RFC does not have access to the players they develop within their VFL program - only to have players from that program selected by other clubs
This should be taken up by the club with the AFL in a way that forces change to this unsustainable and unfair AFL program!
We go out & find them, they don't just land in our laps like the NGAs & other rorts.
How many of Collingbush & Bullfrog academy kids have that really developed?
AFL mid-season draft 2025: Richmond VFL Tom McCarthy has clubs circling
From the third tier of the VAFA and second division of the Southern League, Tom McCarthy has enjoyed a remarkable rise to be on the cusp of an AFL career.
Paul Amy
follow
@paulamy375
Richmond VFL’s latest prospect has travelled the road less taken in football to become an AFL mid-season draft aspirant.
No under-age representative teams or the elite Coates Talent League or club academies were part of Tom McCarthy’s journey.
He was many miles from the established pathway; the skills that have brought him into the eyes of recruiters were developed on suburban grounds, first in the South Metro juniors, then the Victorian amateurs and the Southern league.
The Tiger whose head turns to “T Mac’’ was in Premier C section of the VAFA and second division of Southern, their standards well shy of the state league.
Yet McCarthy, 24, has handled the jump with aplomb since making Richmond’s VFL list and playing 15 games in 2024.
His pace, power and poise across halfback have AFL clubs circling ahead of the May 28 mid-season rookie draft.
Some have already interviewed him and others plan to do the same.
“It’s pretty exciting for something like this to happen,’’ McCarthy says.
He calls himself a “late bloomer’’ who through his teenage years preferred to play cricket and basketball.
Football became his focus when he was 17.
McCarthy’s emergence has surprised few of his former teammates at Old Mentonians, who unfortunately dropped out of football after winning a Thirds premiership last season.
Tom McCarthy lays a tackle during a game against the AFL Academy in April.
Tom McCarthy playing for Highett in the Southern league.
McCarthy won OM’s last best and fairest as a divisional club in 2022.
“He took the *smile* that year, to be honest,’’ teammate Comrey Edgeworth says.
“As a tall, athletic mid, he was sort of like (Hawthorn’s) Will Day. He shook off tackles. He was explosive. He’d burst out of stoppage, take a couple of bounces and either kick a goal or hit up someone.’’
McCarthy joined Old Mentonians from Cheltenham Panthers juniors in 2018, kicking off in the Under 19s with a bunch of mates from Cheltenham Secondary College.
He was playing in the senior team the following year, getting half-a-dozen mentions in the best as a lightly-framed wingman.
When local football resumed from Covid for half a season in 2021, the right-footer, bigger and stronger, moved into the midfield and quickly became one of his team’s most important players.
TOM MCCARTHY'S VFL NUMBERS
2025
GAMES: 15
RANK POINTS: 77
DISPOSALS: 16.9
INSIDE 50S: 2.6
MARKS: 4.2
INTERCEPTS: 4.5
CLEARANCES: 2
TACKLES: 3
2024
GAMES: 6
RANK POINTS: 102
DISPOSALS: 22.3
INSIDE 50S: 2.5
MARKS: 4.2
INTERCEPTS: 5.7
CLEARANCES: 1.7
TACKLES: 3.2
“You could always tell he had something the local footballer didn’t really have and that he should be playing at a higher level, whether that was higher than C grade of the VAFA or the VFL’’ Edgeworth says.
“You’d think, ‘This guy is too good for where he is at the moment’.’’
Former Old Mentonians coach Simon Cormie says ex-AFL player Mark “Mick’’ Dwyer, an assistant coach, had “huge wraps’’ on McCarthy.
It became a running joke at the club that McCarthy was Dwyer’s pet player.
“From day one, he (Dwyer) said, ‘This guy could be anything and we’ve got to get him in the midfield’,’’ Cormie says.
“He was clean by hand and foot so he was always nice on the wing, but he could impact more as a goalkicking midfielder. He was so damaging.’’
Tom McCarthy has rocketed into contention for the mid-season draft.
Tom McCarthy has rocketed into contention for the mid-season draft.
Old Mentonians fell into recess ahead of 2023, leaving McCarthy’s heart heavy for a club that gave him his start in senior football.
“It was a really sad story, to be honest. Great club,’’ he says.
He followed strength and conditioning coach Jarrad Kay to Southern league Division 2’s Highett, playing under Clint Eiensiedel.
That year he finished second in the best and fairest, nosed out by one vote, and gave two outstanding finals performances. In one of them he had almost 40 possessions and kicked three goals, matching an earlier home-and-away effort.
“A little bit, yeah,’’ experienced local coach Eiensiedel replies when asked if McCarthy’s development into a draft prospect has surprised him.
He says there’s “such a big difference’’ between Southern second division and the VFL.
But he says McCarthy had above-average ability and was keen to take his football further.
“He’s a professional, and he’s pretty driven about what he wants to do,’’ Eiensiedel says.
McCarthy not only played football at Highett, he worked there, as the assistant manager of the diary department of Woolworths, working “with all the cold stuff’’. He’s now with a marketing company, where the temperature is more to his liking.
It was Jarrad Kay – now Richmond VFL’s high performance manager – who opened a door for Tom McCarthy at Tigerland.
To go through it required patience and persistence.
McCarthy was taken aback at his new training standards.
“I’ll never forget the first few drills I did — I was shitting myself,’’ he says with a laugh.
“Just the pace. Jesus Christ, the ball got to me so quickly. It took me a month or two to adjust. It was a huge jump. I was used to running around the old blokes at training at Highett.’’
McCarthy is charting a similar path to Western Bulldog Sam Davidson.
McCarthy is charting a similar path to Western Bulldog Sam Davidson.
He had to wait until February for the offer of a contract from Richmond VFL operations manager and now AFL recruiter Oliver Grant. He got it at the same time as another hopeful from local ranks, Sam “Doc’’ Davidson, now burning up and down AFL wings with the Western Bulldogs.
“That’s a cool story,’’ McCarthy says. “That made us close. Our stories are similar.’’
Between them they played 32 games, Davidson making his debut in Round 3 and his pal in Round 6, against Coburg.
McCarthy thought he could handle the physicality of the VFL — “Towards the end at Highett I was getting bashed every week, copping a tag!’’ — but the pace of games and the tactics and structures were something else. He brought himself up to speed.
“You grow as a player when you’ve got good players around you, I reckon,’’ he says.
Tom McCarthy only earned a contract with Richmond in February last year.
McCarthy on the track at Punt Road.
McCarthy started in the midfield. But as more AFL-listed players came into the team, coach Steve Morris pushed him to halfback.
He had never played in defence. “I had to learn the role real quick,’’ he says. It turned out that going back took his football forward.
This year he’s averaged 22.3 possessions from his six matches, setting out his stall in the first round with 24 touches and 10 marks against Coburg at Beaconsfield.
In Richmond’s Round 6 win over Box Hill Hawks, he had 22 disposals, seven tackles and seven marks.
“Played as a halfback but entered most centre bounces for us. We saw how damaging he can be with his feet and his ability to drive his legs,’’ Tigers coach Jake Batchelor commented on the club website.
McCarthy says he’s adopted a “take-the-game-on’’ approach this season.
“That’s been my motto, use your skills and not be afraid,’’ he says. “Maybe that’s why I’ve got a bit of interest.’’
‘He should be playing AFL footy’
From the third tier of the VAFA and second division of the Southern League, Tom McCarthy has enjoyed a remarkable rise to be on the cusp of an AFL career.
Paul Amy
follow
@paulamy375
Richmond VFL’s latest prospect has travelled the road less taken in football to become an AFL mid-season draft aspirant.
No under-age representative teams or the elite Coates Talent League or club academies were part of Tom McCarthy’s journey.
He was many miles from the established pathway; the skills that have brought him into the eyes of recruiters were developed on suburban grounds, first in the South Metro juniors, then the Victorian amateurs and the Southern league.
The Tiger whose head turns to “T Mac’’ was in Premier C section of the VAFA and second division of Southern, their standards well shy of the state league.
Yet McCarthy, 24, has handled the jump with aplomb since making Richmond’s VFL list and playing 15 games in 2024.
His pace, power and poise across halfback have AFL clubs circling ahead of the May 28 mid-season rookie draft.
Some have already interviewed him and others plan to do the same.
“It’s pretty exciting for something like this to happen,’’ McCarthy says.
He calls himself a “late bloomer’’ who through his teenage years preferred to play cricket and basketball.
Football became his focus when he was 17.
McCarthy’s emergence has surprised few of his former teammates at Old Mentonians, who unfortunately dropped out of football after winning a Thirds premiership last season.
Tom McCarthy lays a tackle during a game against the AFL Academy in April.
Tom McCarthy playing for Highett in the Southern league.
McCarthy won OM’s last best and fairest as a divisional club in 2022.
“He took the *smile* that year, to be honest,’’ teammate Comrey Edgeworth says.
“As a tall, athletic mid, he was sort of like (Hawthorn’s) Will Day. He shook off tackles. He was explosive. He’d burst out of stoppage, take a couple of bounces and either kick a goal or hit up someone.’’
McCarthy joined Old Mentonians from Cheltenham Panthers juniors in 2018, kicking off in the Under 19s with a bunch of mates from Cheltenham Secondary College.
He was playing in the senior team the following year, getting half-a-dozen mentions in the best as a lightly-framed wingman.
When local football resumed from Covid for half a season in 2021, the right-footer, bigger and stronger, moved into the midfield and quickly became one of his team’s most important players.
TOM MCCARTHY'S VFL NUMBERS
2025
GAMES: 15
RANK POINTS: 77
DISPOSALS: 16.9
INSIDE 50S: 2.6
MARKS: 4.2
INTERCEPTS: 4.5
CLEARANCES: 2
TACKLES: 3
2024
GAMES: 6
RANK POINTS: 102
DISPOSALS: 22.3
INSIDE 50S: 2.5
MARKS: 4.2
INTERCEPTS: 5.7
CLEARANCES: 1.7
TACKLES: 3.2
“You could always tell he had something the local footballer didn’t really have and that he should be playing at a higher level, whether that was higher than C grade of the VAFA or the VFL’’ Edgeworth says.
“You’d think, ‘This guy is too good for where he is at the moment’.’’
Former Old Mentonians coach Simon Cormie says ex-AFL player Mark “Mick’’ Dwyer, an assistant coach, had “huge wraps’’ on McCarthy.
It became a running joke at the club that McCarthy was Dwyer’s pet player.
“From day one, he (Dwyer) said, ‘This guy could be anything and we’ve got to get him in the midfield’,’’ Cormie says.
“He was clean by hand and foot so he was always nice on the wing, but he could impact more as a goalkicking midfielder. He was so damaging.’’
Tom McCarthy has rocketed into contention for the mid-season draft.
Tom McCarthy has rocketed into contention for the mid-season draft.
Old Mentonians fell into recess ahead of 2023, leaving McCarthy’s heart heavy for a club that gave him his start in senior football.
“It was a really sad story, to be honest. Great club,’’ he says.
He followed strength and conditioning coach Jarrad Kay to Southern league Division 2’s Highett, playing under Clint Eiensiedel.
That year he finished second in the best and fairest, nosed out by one vote, and gave two outstanding finals performances. In one of them he had almost 40 possessions and kicked three goals, matching an earlier home-and-away effort.
“A little bit, yeah,’’ experienced local coach Eiensiedel replies when asked if McCarthy’s development into a draft prospect has surprised him.
He says there’s “such a big difference’’ between Southern second division and the VFL.
But he says McCarthy had above-average ability and was keen to take his football further.
“He’s a professional, and he’s pretty driven about what he wants to do,’’ Eiensiedel says.
McCarthy not only played football at Highett, he worked there, as the assistant manager of the diary department of Woolworths, working “with all the cold stuff’’. He’s now with a marketing company, where the temperature is more to his liking.
It was Jarrad Kay – now Richmond VFL’s high performance manager – who opened a door for Tom McCarthy at Tigerland.
To go through it required patience and persistence.
McCarthy was taken aback at his new training standards.
“I’ll never forget the first few drills I did — I was shitting myself,’’ he says with a laugh.
“Just the pace. Jesus Christ, the ball got to me so quickly. It took me a month or two to adjust. It was a huge jump. I was used to running around the old blokes at training at Highett.’’
McCarthy is charting a similar path to Western Bulldog Sam Davidson.
McCarthy is charting a similar path to Western Bulldog Sam Davidson.
He had to wait until February for the offer of a contract from Richmond VFL operations manager and now AFL recruiter Oliver Grant. He got it at the same time as another hopeful from local ranks, Sam “Doc’’ Davidson, now burning up and down AFL wings with the Western Bulldogs.
“That’s a cool story,’’ McCarthy says. “That made us close. Our stories are similar.’’
Between them they played 32 games, Davidson making his debut in Round 3 and his pal in Round 6, against Coburg.
McCarthy thought he could handle the physicality of the VFL — “Towards the end at Highett I was getting bashed every week, copping a tag!’’ — but the pace of games and the tactics and structures were something else. He brought himself up to speed.
“You grow as a player when you’ve got good players around you, I reckon,’’ he says.
Tom McCarthy only earned a contract with Richmond in February last year.
McCarthy on the track at Punt Road.
McCarthy started in the midfield. But as more AFL-listed players came into the team, coach Steve Morris pushed him to halfback.
He had never played in defence. “I had to learn the role real quick,’’ he says. It turned out that going back took his football forward.
This year he’s averaged 22.3 possessions from his six matches, setting out his stall in the first round with 24 touches and 10 marks against Coburg at Beaconsfield.
In Richmond’s Round 6 win over Box Hill Hawks, he had 22 disposals, seven tackles and seven marks.
“Played as a halfback but entered most centre bounces for us. We saw how damaging he can be with his feet and his ability to drive his legs,’’ Tigers coach Jake Batchelor commented on the club website.
McCarthy says he’s adopted a “take-the-game-on’’ approach this season.
“That’s been my motto, use your skills and not be afraid,’’ he says. “Maybe that’s why I’ve got a bit of interest.’’
‘He should be playing AFL footy’
He's well worth a shot for us (or anybody) is McCarthy.
Hopefully we get a shot at him.
Reckon he'll get even more powerful once he gets into a full-time environment.
Hopefully we get a shot at him.
Reckon he'll get even more powerful once he gets into a full-time environment.
I'm not fussed about us not having first access to our VFL boys. Yeah it would be nice but I don't have much issue with the current status. We are a destination club for guys who want a second chance or have come via alternate pathways.
That I have direct from a couple of players parents. Their boys play for other VFL teams but wanted to play for us as we were seen as the best pathway to an AFL list spot.
Our overall positive approach and openness in this way establishes a better long term culture IMHO.
That I have direct from a couple of players parents. Their boys play for other VFL teams but wanted to play for us as we were seen as the best pathway to an AFL list spot.
Our overall positive approach and openness in this way establishes a better long term culture IMHO.
I do think we should have some sort of option over them (maybe can match on 1 player per year), but I also agree with your assessment of the programme we have operating. We are treating the VFL team exactly as it should be, as a development team. A lot of other AFL clubs don't do this, its why we don't take many older players, we handpick a few to play core roles, and then pick highly rated younger guys or players in suburban footy and give them an opportunity.
As you say it leads to players wanting to play for you. Its similar to my soccer club that I support in the UK, we are a small club, but we attract a lot of players from non-league or players that are not being kept on at bigger clubs, as we offer pathways to get back into the top 2 divisions and have 20 years of proof of what we do, it means that ambitious players from lower leagues choose us over other clubs even if they offer more money because the opportunity is worth more to them. Its actually a really smart way to market your club / development side, as it creates an intangible that means your remuneration might not be as much but the intangible is valuable.