By Liam Twomey
WESTERN Jets footballers William Hoskin-Elliott and Elliott Kavanagh are ditching the Blue and Yellow and getting accustomed to a new set of playing colours after they were both selected in the AFL national draft.
The Jets had one of their most successful draft nights ever with Greater Western Sydney using pick four to take midfielder Hoskin-Elliott and Essendon using pick 19 to take Kavanagh.
For Hoskin-Elliott, it completed what had been a dream year with the Jets and the Vic Metro and saw him realise his true potential to dominate at all levels of junior football.
The former North Sunshine junior now joins the best young talented footballers in Australian at the Giants, which dominated the early proceedings of the draft.
Western Jets coach Steve Kretiuk said it was a great reward for effort for both the players selected and the staff at the Jets.
“That’s why we are in the program to get these guys up to AFL level and to get three this year so far is great. Hopefully we can get a couple more in the rookie draft but to see all the hard work pay off, it was great.
“It’s awesome for Will. If you look at the bigger picture, an AFL team thinks that he is the fourth best under-age player in the land so it’s a great honour for him and it’s great for the club.
“I think it’s 17 years since we have had someone in the top 10 at the Jets.”
Kretiuk had worked with Hoskin-Elliott the past two years as both a bottom-age and top-age player and saw the improvement up close over that time.
“I think the turning point was against Western Australia in the championships when they put a GPS on him. I don’t think Will really knew how hard he could run until then and from that point on I just saw a totally different player,” Kretiuk said.
“There was no opponent that could really keep up with him. He’d just burn them off though sheer work rate. I think Will from that point on had confidence in himself that he could take the opposition on a bit more.”
Kavanagh had the opposite preparation to his team-mate after spending most of the year on the sidelines because of a hamstring injury.
That will be of no concern to him now as he pulls on the Bombers’ jumper and begins his AFL career at one of the biggest sporting clubs in Australia.
“If he had played the majority of the games this year he would have been top 10 no doubt about it. What we saw as a bottom-age player showed he certainly has the ability to be a very good AFL player and it’s just unfortunate that he had a couple of setbacks,” Kretiuk said.
Kavanagh highlighted just how good his skills were at the AFL national draft combine when he topped the scoring at the handball test.
“It’s not an ideal preparation coming into an AFL career but sometimes I think you can learn from these setbacks and become a better player because of it,” Kretiuk said.
“Hopefully he can take something away from what he went through this year and how he dealt with it.”
Hoskin-Elliott and Kavanagh join team-mate Adam Kennedy, who was already selected by GWS, and former Western Jet Steven Morris, who was selected as a mature age recruit for Richmond on AFL lists.
Region manager Shane Sexton was hoping for more to come at the rookie draft.
“Hopefully some of them might only have to wait another fortnight for the rookie draft. They just need to cool their heels and wait for that,” he said.
“The pathways are fantastic and if you really believe in yourself and believe you have the ability to play at the level there are any amount of examples of people that have made it.”
