FALCONS PAIR PICKED UP IN AFL DRAFT

WEST Perth's remarkable 2013 has continued at Thursday's AFL National Draft with Blake Acres and Nick Robertson both being selected by St Kilda and the Brisbane Lions respectively.

Exciting 18-year-old forward Acres was the first Falcons player selected when St Kilda picked him up at No. 19 and he was then joined in the AFL by his West Perth colts teammate Robertson who taken at selection No. 34 by the Brisbane Lions.

Having two players drafted into the AFL caps off a remarkable 2013 season for the West Perth Football Club with the league side winning a first premiership in 10 years and the reserves also pulling off a remarkable second half of the season culminating in a grand final berth.

The dreams of a host of other talented West Perth players of finding their way onto an AFL list in 2014 isn’t over, though, with the Rookie Draft still to take place next week.

Acres is a versatile prospect with good endurance and has shown he can adapt to any role asked of him.

A shoulder injury suffered early in the season threatened to derail his Under-18 Championships, but he returned for the last two games of the carnival and made a handy contribution. He is equally adept at rebounding off half-back and cutting up opposition sides with his slick disposal.

Meanwhile, Robertson is a medium midfielder who attacks the footy at every opportunity.

He is a strongly built player with an appetite for the contest who is rarely beaten one on one. He possesses elite endurance and missed the NAB AFL Under 18 Championships because of injury, but still performed well at colts level and now finds himself in the AFL system.

The West Perth Football Club not only continues to show the way in the WAFL but is also supplying AFL clubs with some of the best talent in the country.

Ever since the first National Draft was held in 1986, West Perth has consistently produced plenty of talented players into the AFL system, and never was that more evident than in 2013 when Max Bailey, Brad Hill and Stephen Hill all took part in the AFL grand final.

West Perth's first player drafted came in 1988 when Craig Turley was picked up by West Coast and he went on to play 131 games in the AFL with both the Eagles and Melbourne.

Todd Curley, Mark Merenda, Justin Longmuir, Michael Pettigrew and Mark Seaby are all past AFL players to have reached at least 100 games while Derek Hall, Paul Symmons, Brendon Fewster, Steven Koops and Troy Longmuir are others to have made a mark at the top level.

As well as the Hill brothers and Bailey, Quinten Lynch, Kepler Bradley, Nathan van Berlo, Mark LeCras, Jack Darling, Rohan Bewick and Mark Hutchings are all players to have been drafted from West Perth to play at least one AFL game in 2013.

Lynch moved from West Coast to Collingwood for 2013 and took his career tally to 227 matches, the most of any player from West Perth since the AFL was formed in 1990.

Adelaide captain Nathan van Berlo has now played 182 matches since being drafted by the Crows in 2004 and he is on track to reach his 200th game milestone in 2014.

Bradley's year was over just about before it began due to a knee injury, but the West Perth premiership player from 2003 has earned a new one-year contract with the Dockers in 2014.

Hawthorn ruckman Bailey has had a horror run with knee injuries since being drafted in 2005, but he persevered and the Hawks stuck with him and both player and club were rewarded in 2013 with a premiership medallion.

The 27-year-old Bailey retired after Hawthorn's grand final win over Fremantle ending his AFL career on 43 matches.

The last time two brothers ran onto the MCG in a grand final was way back in 1912 when Essendon captain Alan Belcher took on South Melbourne and his brother Vic.

It took 101 years but it finally happened again in the 2013 AFL grand final with the 23-year-old Docker Stephen Hill going up against his younger 20-year-old Brad in front of over 100,000 fans at the MCG, with Brad's Hawks managing to get over the line against the wasteful Dockers.

In a touching beginning to the grand final, the two brothers lined up opposed to one another as well at the game's first bounce, but for the rest of the afternoon they were rarely seen together for the most part.

There was one occasion when Fremantle's Stephen had the ball near the boundary and his younger brother Brad tackled him and got him over the line to force a throw-in. Brad held on to Stephen a little longer and Stephen pushed him away and struck out at his hand, but it was all good natured.

In the end, Stephen finished the grand final one of Fremantle's better players with 21 possessions while Brad had 15 disposals, four marks, three tackles, three inside-50 entries and a goal in Hawthorn's premiership-winning team.