By Mark Murray
VICTORIAN Metro coach David Dickson faces one of his biggest selection challenges in his 11 years in charge of the exclusive squad this year.
Dickson said the quality of the first trial match on the weekend was as good as he had seen since he began coaching in 1997.
Five Western Jets are vying for a spot in the squad: Nathan Black, Nick DiMartino, Callan Ward, Rhyce Prismall and Will Sullivan.
The initial squad of 57 was whittled away to 43 on Sunday and will be further cut after the next practice match against Vic Country on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
Dickson admitted players with the ability to be drafted would miss out on a chance to impress AFL scouts at this year’s under 18 national titles, such was the depth of the squad.
“I think it was probably the best standard of trial game I have coached,” Dickson said.
“I think this year what will happen is our depth will be a lot stronger than country or the other states.
“From players 25 to 40 we are extremely strong but the difficult thing is when you can only pick 25 that doesn’t really matter.
“So I think this year there are going to be a lot of players that unfortunately may not make Vic metro but I reckon will still get drafted.”
Vic Metro’s ruck stocks are especially full, which is a rarity in under-age football.
“We have Dean Putt (202cm), Will Sullivan (202cm) and Andrew Renton (200cm) and all of them played really, really well,” Dickson said.
“Any other year they would have walked in as probably starting line-up and to top it off we didn’t even play Matthew Kreuzer, who is probably our number one ruckman.
“So it creates a bit of a dilemma with who we’ll go with and who will miss out.”
A final squad of 25 and five emergencies will be finalised on June 11 for the AFL National Championships in July.
“Some of these guys you’re just not really sure how they are going to step up to this level but others really pick it up,” Dickson said.
“We normally cut it down to 35 after the first trial game but we decided this year to cut it to 43 given the calibre of the squad.
“We have 43 players who are pretty evenly matched so it’s going to be very competitive against Vic Country.”
