NORTH Ballarat Rebels talent manager Phil Partington says a strong 2015 VFL season will thrust Rowan Marshall’s name in front of AFL recruiters after the Portland ruckman was overlooked in yesterday’s rookie draft.
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Partington said Marshall, considered one of the Rebels’ strongest hopes in the second-chance draft, was a promising tall who would benefit significantly from a season in the state competition.
Marshall, 19, has started pre-season training with North Ballarat Roosters — the club he made his VFL debut for as a 23rd man this year while combining TAC Cup and Vic Country duties.
“Through Rowan’s work with the Rebels the last 12 months he has built fantastic relationships with the Roosters,” Partington said.
“He trained there every Wednesday throughout the year.
“I expect Rowan to play some very good VFL footy next year.
“He’ll have a great mentor — (Roosters ruck coach) Orren Stephenson was in the AFL system for three years.
“He’ll put a lot of time into Rowan to make sure he develops.
“There’d be nothing better than seeing Rowan picked up as a 20-year-old.”
Marshall played for the Rebels as a 19-year-old listed player in 2014, an opportunity his Portland teammate Tom Templeton will pursue next year. Templeton also missed out as a rookie yesterday but impressed in all 19 games for the Rebels this season.
“Tom will get an opportunity to be a 19-year-old for the Rebels next year and we’ve had great success the last couple of years with Louis Herbert, Jake Lloyd and also Rowan,” Partington said.
Partington said both Marshall and Templeton enjoyed fruitful seasons and deserved to be talked about as draft chances.
He said he was proud of their efforts this year, both at TAC Cup level and the draft combines.
“It’s disappointing but they should celebrate the way they have gone about it,” he said. “Unfortunately the end decision is taken out of their hands.
“Be disappointed but we always say the boys who make the rookie draft or miss out (and are selected later) become hungrier and have dogged AFL careers because of that early disappointment.”
A number of delisted AFL players were thrown lifelines via the rookie draft and four were drafted out of the VFL.
North Ballarat Rebels’ Oscar McDonald (Melbourne), Daniel Butler (Richmond) and Jesse Palmer (Port Adelaide) all found homes via the national draft but the club failed to add any rookies to its 2014 crop.
“The rookie draft today had a lot more mature-age players,” Partington said.
“We were hoping to get three or four taken but realistically we thought we had one or two chances.
“It didn’t fall the right way and there weren’t many ruckmen taken.”
No south-west players were selected across the two drafts — a rare situation for an area with rich AFL links.