FOR footballers whose draft dream is realised the choice of where to play is made for them.
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But what happens to those players who leave the junior pathway system without an AFL contract?
It comes down to what best suits the individual.
Study, work, family, location and desire all play a part in their decision-making.
Greater Western Victoria Rebels' 2021 class exemplifies this diversity.
Some, like Penshurst's Josh Rentsch, opted to move across the border and play in the SANFL.
It's a tough competition with senior and reserves outfits, giving players a sense of community.
Others, like South Warrnambool duo Fraser Marris and Marcus Herbert, are testing their luck with Geelong's VFL program.
It means - if they make the Cats' final list - they will need a feeder club in the local competition as those not playing AFL each round will have first priority in the state league team.
Marris has picked Bell Park and Herbert will play for Leopold.
Archie Stevens - their South Warrnambool clubmate - is doing likewise at Carlton.
East Point's Charlie Molan opted to sign with Williamstown - a standalone club which will provide him with more opportunities to play senior football.
Then there are prospects like Camperdown's Hamish Sinnott, Portland's Jamieson Ballantyne and Ballarat's Flynn Loader who are training with VFL programs but have committed to the NAB League as 19-year-old options.
A former Rebel - Koroit premiership player Josh Chatfield - has made Footscray's VFL team aged 21.
Rebels coach David Loader believes it's important for players to pick a pathway which complements other areas of their lives.
"It is always the player and what is easiest for them and there's so many variables that come into it," he told The Standard.
"It might be family set-up, it might be study.
"We have guys who have gone back to local footy and we have guys who are looking at going to Western Australia.
"Everyone is a bit different and it will be interesting to follow all those guys and see where their paths take them."
Loader said considering different game styles and opportunities also came into players' decision-making.
"The football has to suit too. I look at someone like Josh Rentsch and go 'yep, South Australia is going to suit him down to the ground'," he said.
"He's big and he's strong and that's what is required in that competition.
"He'll go to a club environment where if you're not in the senior side, you'll play reserves footy and you're under the eye of one direction of the club and you can get back into the senior side."
Loader said players who picked the VFL, and particularly clubs aligned to an AFL outfit, knew it could be a rocky path, given the tough competition for spots.
"If you go to to Geelong or go to the Western Bulldogs, their AFL-listed players are 100 per cent playing first," he said.
"Their highest-quality VFL players, who are guys who have played VFL football over the last few years, that are really good players, will be in the team.
"And then it might be made up of four or five kids who are highly talented and can get a game."
Loader is bullish about what Marris and Herbert could achieve.
"They are both very, very good players and are both capable of playing VFL footy at that next level," he said.
"I look at those guys and think they're not a million miles off the guys who got drafted.
"They might find a way just with a different pathway."
Ballantyne - considered a draft chance but deemed raw due to a lack of game time over the past two years - will vie for chances at Footscray this year.
If not, he'll be a key cog at the Rebels.
"He is a classic example. They've played 10 games of NAB League footy these kids (over two years) which is not a lot of footy," Loader said of the COVID-19 interruption.
"If you wound the clock back five years ago, they'd have played that halfway through their bottom-age year."
Then there's players such as Chatfield, who has carved a name for himself at North Ballarat.
"Some players can have reasonably good NAB League careers and they might not be quite ready for the VFL so some of these players will go back and play local football," Loader said.
"They grow a little bit and get a bit stronger and then they're more physically ready to play at the next level."
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