FOLLOWING on from our piece about the AFL AIS Academy members, we have dug deep to pull out 22 names from across the TAC Cup to keep an eye on this season.

This is not to say they will all get drafted, nor does it mean that they are necessarily the 22 best across the field. But we have picked 22 players that caught our eye at times last year whether it be through the TAC Cup or school football.

To ensure it was lesser known players, we deliberately had a few restrictions to picking the team:

• They must be born in the year 1999 (aka. Eligible to be drafted this year);
• They must have been on a TAC Cup list last year; and
• They cannot be a member of the AFL’s AIS Academy.

There are a number of raw players in the team and plenty of talent with 11 of the 12 clubs represented.

Dandenong, the one club not represented in this team has a whopping four AIS Academy members so the Stingrays certainly have their fair share of talent.

Without further ado, here is the team we have come up with:

TAC Cup Pre-Season Non-AIS Team:

B: Austin Hodge (Gippsland Power) – Harrison Nolan (Eastern Ranges) – Alex Paech (Murray Bushrangers)

HB: Ethan Penrith (Northern Knights) – Cody Henness (Gippsland Power) – Laine Fitzgerald (Bendigo Pioneers)

C:  Jackson Ross (Eastern Ranges) – Adam Cerra (Eastern Ranges) – Brad Bernacki (Calder Cannons)

HF: Aiden Domic (North Ballarat Rebels) – Toby Wooller (Oakleigh Chargers) – Alfie Jarnestrom (Sandringham Dragons)

F: Isaac Morrisby (Sandringham Dragons) – Tristan Xerri (Western Jets) – Christian Farchione (Northern Knights)

R: Ethan Casey (Sandringham Dragons) – Cassidy Parish (Geelong Falcons) – Andrew Brayshaw (Sandringham Dragons)

INT: Thomas North (Eastern Ranges) – Jordan Johnston (North Ballarat Rebels) – Harry Benson (Geelong Falcons) – Doulton Langlands (Murray Bushrangers) –  Nathan Boucher (Oakleigh Chargers)

At the mid-point and end of the year we will aim to update the team and see which players have bolted into contention, if any newcomers to TAC Cup lists have made the cut, and if injuries have played a part in some cases. For our pre-season team there are many unlucky inclusions who could have made the side such as Gippsland Power’s Callan McKeon who finished strongly in the Morrish Medal count, while North Ballarat’s Trent Reed showed glimpses of ball winning ability at times in his bottom age year as well.