JOSH ROTHAM DRAFTED BY WEST COAST EAGLES

WEST Perth has produced another AFL player with young key defender Josh Rotham taken by the West Coast Eagles in Friday's NAB Draft in Sydney.

Rotham was selected by the Eagles with pick No. 37 in the NAB AFL Draft as reward for his progression through the development ranks with West Perth.

The Whitford Junior Football Club product broke through to play four colts matches with West Perth in 2014 before coming into his own in 2015 with 11 games while also representing WA at State 18s level.

He again featured in eight colts and two reserves matches with the Falcons in 2016 while putting in some strong showings for WA in the Nationals 18s Championships.

That had the 18-year-old has one of the most sought after key defenders in the draft on Friday and it was West Coast that selected him with pick No. 37.

Rotham will now be teammates with Jack Darling and Mark Hutchings who were both drafted to the Eagles from West Perth.

The other Falcons players to be in the AFL in 2017 are Stephen Hill (Fremantle), Rohan Bewick (Brisbane), Bradley Hill (Fremantle), Blake Acres (St Kilda), Nick Robertson (Brisbane Lions) and Marcus Adams (Western Bulldogs).

It capped a successful NAB AFL Draft for Western Australia with 10 players selected included two in the top 10, and four in the first round.

That is the best result in a National Draft for WA in a decade highlighting the success the increased resources that have been put into the development program is having.

Sam Petrevski-Seton was the first player picked from WA when the Claremont product via Halls Head was selected by Carlton with pick No. 6.

Swan Districts' big man Griffin Logue went to Fremantle with pick No. 8 followed by East Perth's Sam Powell-Pepper to Port Adelaide at pick 18, South Fremantle's Tim English to the Western Bulldogs (19), Perth's Zac Fisher to Carlton (27), South Fremantle's Shai Bolton to Richmond (29), Claremont's Darcy Cameron to Sydney (48), Perth's Quinton Narkle to Geelong (60) and Claremont's Jake Waterman to West Coast (77).