BILLING for McCluggage versus McGrath sounds like some kind of boxing match or wrestling showdown.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was actually a podcast for a Melbourne commercial radio station, featuring TAC Cup talent managers for each AFL draftee hopeful putting forward the best attributes of their player forward. Cases were linked together with expert analysis for which of the two might go pick number one next Friday.
Sports fans are devouring their stories, their statistics, anything to fuel their insatiable football appetites in the game’s ‘off-season’. Leading football commentators like Dermott Brereton are urging us already to remember their names.
And neither has even played an AFL game. Or is AFL listed – yet.
Scrutiny is intense for two 18-year-olds, and others like them, who have just polished off year 12 exams.
We must keep in mind the fact that they are young men, vying not just to step up into senior football ranks, but the highest football ranks. Many have their dreams pinned on a selection and, in reality, most dreams will not turn reality in this draft.
It is a lot for players to handle. North Ballarat Rebels have had to closely manage media exposure for our AFL draft hopefuls now more than ever before, especially with Hugh McCluggage touted as a top pick prospect.
If handled well, increasing attention on the draft and draft prospects is a good thing. It lifts the profile of their elite and grassroots football programs.
People want to know more about potential AFL players: their athletic attributes, game sense, statistics, personality, background.
Rebel Hugh McCluggage is likely doing more to put Allansford on the map right now than Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory tourism.
Everyone wants a piece of them and their story.
Attention to the next crop of AFL hopefuls increasingly intensifies each year, especially leading into draft night. There are more podcasts, online televised segments and mounting media requests fuelling closer public analysis and attention on all young men. A player like McCluggage also attracts attention from media in two major regional cities (Warrnambool and Ballarat) and agricultural publications keen to talk about life growing up on a dairy farm.
Social media is a whole other ball-game.
When Jacob Hopper’s name was called for Greater Western Sydney at pick seven in last year’s draft, a Rebels social media post drew more than 60,000 hits to the club website. This season the Rebels became the first TAC Cup club to launch a weekly online show, Rebels TV, which averages 100,000 hits per episode.
TAC Cup football is about developing and promoting players in an AFL-like environment. The draft is a major aspect but a key measure is also in players who later return to the grassroots game with a whole new perspective in professionalism and pressure.
Juniors aspire to be like them. There was an extra excitement about Rebels screenings across western Victoria this week with promising juniors abuzz a player like McCluggage in their shoes a year earlier.