By ADEM SARICAOGLU
A PROMISING crop of top-age and draft-eligible Western Jets midfielders will be looking to make the right impressions in the TAC Cup this year.
Corey Ellis, Jayden Laverde, Liam Duggan and Connor Menadue have all emerged as the early frontrunners to push for a spot on an AFL list come November.
All four enjoyed a good run and played at least 11 games for the Jets as bottom-agers in the TAC Cup last year.
Coach Torin Baker is confident the experience of 12 months ago will have a positive impact on his 2014 playing group and hopes it’ll translate into success on the scoreboard after scoring 10 wins in his first year in charge.
“We were lucky enough to have a lot of bottom-age players play a reasonable portion of the year, and I think you’re learning all the time about what the requirements are at TAC Cup level,” Baker said.
“For a lot of our players, I think they’ll be better for the experience just knowing what the level is and what they have to do to be able to perform well at the level. So that in itself is probably something that should hold a lot of the squad in good stead for the year.
“I think in terms of the results we just want to be super-competitive in every game we play and hopefully that will turn into more wins than losses for the year.”
So far five Jets have been named as part of the Vic Metro squad, with Dillon Viojo-Rainbow and Duom Dawam joining Duggan, Laverde and Ellis.
Other Jets may yet be called up as the TAC Cup season kicks into gear from this weekend.
While the obvious goal is to have some of his young charges get drafted, Baker will first be keen to see a number of Jets don the big V in this year’s under-18 national championships.
“Obviously you’d hope some players get drafted, but there’s probably a stepping stone before that and we hope that a lot of our players do get an opportunity to play in the national championships,” he said.
“Hopefully from there if you can perform well at the national championships then it’s a fair chance you might find yourself on an AFL list.”
The Jets last week announced Liam McMahon as their captain for the 2014 season.
The Hoppers Crossing product was almost unanimously picked for the role, and Baker is “super-excited” to have the 17-year-old as his on-field leader.
“He’s a very natural leader and he just lives and breathes the organisation values and really drives the players to be better,” Baker said.
“He’s a high quality person so he was quite an easy choice as captain.”
