Red-hot Dragons: Sandringham talent factory on the brink of another flag and bumper draft crop

The Dragons won by eight goals.

But the match did produce a good line from a reporter who tracks the Under 18 competition. The Talent League, he quipped, amounted to “a season of practice matches – and then the Dragons just win the flag’’.

It’s getting that way. When they play the Greater Western Victorian Rebels at IKON Park on Saturday, the Dragons will be chasing their third consecutive premiership.

Talent manager Mark Wheeler thinks the run would have started earlier if the 2021 season had been completed. He thought that team was “nearly unbeatable’’.

“I don’t think we’d lost a game when the season was abandoned because of Covid,’’ Wheeler says. “I think we had 13 drafted from that list. I would have liked that year to go on.’’

But Wheeler, who joined the Dragons in 2019 after overseeing the Dandenong Stingrays’ breakthrough flag in 2018, believes this season’s side may be the best he’s handled. He says the Dragons, coached by former AFL assistant Rob Harding, move the ball with the speed and skill of a “young AFL team’’.

“It’s probably the best depth list I’ve put together. You know, one soldier in, one soldier out scenario,’’ Wheeler says.

“They drive each other. They’ve got run, they’ve got carry. They play the game like AFL. They carry the ball like an AFL team, they’re connected like an AFL team, they’ve got lots of skill and a good balance of height and size and smalls, and they just back each other. If they make a mistake, they move on.

“We’ve been five goals down at times and come back and won. We’ve lost a couple of games … against Oakleigh, our boys got a little bit ahead of themselves and thought talent was going to do it, but they got the kick they needed to know it’s got to be talent and work rate. They’ve got plenty of work rate.’’

But he adds: “The list I’m currently putting together that’s full of 15, 16 and 17-year-olds is a bloody good list too. I’m bullish that one might even beat this one.’’

The Dragons have had bumper draft hauls in the past few years and Wheeler is expecting another strong hand in 2024. Of this year’s squad, 15 players have been invited to either the national or state combines, and Wheeler says two or three were unlucky to be overlooked.

In AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan’s estimation, the Dragons have eight “red-hot’’ draft chances and a few others bubbling under.

In their top 50 prospects in August, CODE Sports draft experts Chris Cavanagh and Dan Batten listed seven Sandringham Dragons: Levi Ashcroft (No. 2), Luke Trainor (7), Murphy Reid (8), Harry Armstrong (9), Taj Hotton (15), Sam Marshall (23), Adrian Cole (36) and Josh Dolan (41). Highlighting the Dragons’ depth of talent, Bailey McKenzie was not mentioned – but he may appear in revised rankings after taking the Stingrays for six goals.

Wheeler has been pushing up others, notably Luke Kennedy, Owen Bater, Ben Seers and Nathaniel Sulzberger. Kennedy was 16 when he won amateur club Ormond’s senior best and fairest last year.

Wheeler was saying a few weeks ago that Kennedy had been getting little attention from recruiters but his performance against the Stingrays – 28 disposals and five inside 50s – set a few talking.

“He’s got a little bit of interest now, which is really good.

“He runs well, he’s as brave as they come, he’s matching it with the best mids in the competition. He’s a very consistent, polished young player … both sides of his body and he’s got good speed. A couple of times he looked slow. Maybe that was because he was carrying a huge load when we lost all our private (school) players.’’

What makes the Sandringham Dragons such a prolific producer of talent?

The zone takes in the southern bayside area and draws on players from the strong South Metro Junior Football League and a string of private schools with well-resourced football programs. One school has five former AFL players on its coaching staff.

Five years ago, Sheehan called the region a “hot spot’’ for talent. Given the number of players they draft from it, recruiters clearly have a soft spot for the hot spot.

Wheeler acknowledges the base of talent – “We have a really rich football zone’’ – but says the club has a “culture’’ that ensures it is maximised.

“It’s not about the individual. It’s about us all – we’re all together on the ride,’’ he says.

“It has to be like that when you play 68 players. We’ve got young men who want to be the best at what they do. That drives our culture. We’ve got some accountability. We’ve got some honesty. That pushes the talent we’ve got. And when everyone knows the talent’s there, there’s pressure for spots. It’s great to have 16-year-olds like Arki Butler and Jack Surkitt putting pressure on you for a game of footy.’’

Jackson Kornberg, now coaching VFL club Frankston, coached the Dragons in the sawn-off season of 2021 after earlier being a long-time assistant.

He regards the Sandringham Dragons as a “finishing school’’ for players developed by successful junior clubs such as East Sandringham (from where Brownlow Medal champion Chris Judd and Jobe Watson emerged), East Brighton Vampires, St Bede’s Mentone Tigers and Beaumaris. They progress to interleague teams under the banner of South Metro, one of the biggest junior leagues in the country.

St Kilda’s NGA, heaving with youngsters whose parents pay for their participation in the Academy, oversees South Metro’s representative sides.

The Dragons, who operate out of Moorabbin, work closely with the Saints to align the training programs. They do the same with the schools, ensuring players aren’t being overburdened.

“They (players) feed into the Talent League at 15, 16. By then they’ve already had a couple of years of high-end experience,’’ Kornberg says.

“The Dragons are the finishing school really. They learn everything from their junior clubs. A lot of the junior clubs are so well resourced and so well coached and have good people involved. They deserve a lot of credit, because that’s where the players learn to love the game and learn to play it.’’

Like Wheeler, Kornberg also highlights the quality of the Dragons program. He says it has consistency and continuity despite regular changes to the head coaching position.

“There’s never been anyone come in with heaps of new ideas and wanting to flip everything,’’ Kornberg notes.

“Every coach who’s come in has respected what was done the previous year and tried to value-add to that.

“I remember when ‘Bourkey’ (2019-20 coach Josh Bourke) came in after ‘Barney’ (Jeremy Barnard) and he sat down and asked what worked, what didn’t work, and respected what was already in place. I did the same. ‘Crippa’ (Wayne Cripps) did the same. He reached out to me. And Rob reached out to ‘Crippa’. So there’s been this consistency in the values and the type of program that is run, what the club stands for and what’s expected of the players.’’

Bourke once told Kornberg the Dragons belonged not to the coaches or players, but the volunteers.

It resonated with him. He passed the message along.

“It’s the volunteers’ club. They’re always there. We just pass through,’’ Kornberg says.

The Dragons will be the hottest of favourites against the Rebels, who had five wins and 10 losses during the home-and-away season, but upset Geelong Falcons in a quarter-final and nosed out Oakleigh Chargers by four points in the preliminary final.

Wheeler says the 2024 squad made it a goal to deliver a three-peat to the Dragons (if it’s achieved, Ashcroft will have played in all three). The talent manager praises second-year coach Harding (“He’s very good analytically and he’s very good with vision but he doesn’t overcomplicate things’’) and high performance lead Peter Green (“He’s still an athlete, so we’ve got an athlete teaching young athletes’’).

“On a list of 60, we had 30 players run less than a 6:30 in a 2km trial,’’ Wheeler says.

The plucky Rebels will be doing their best to keep up in Saturday’s grand final at Carlton.

SANDRINGHAM DRAGONS BOYS AND WHERE THEY’RE FROM

1 Oliver Green, Parkdale Vultures

2 Jack Dalton, Camberwell

3 Levi Ashcroft, Old Brighton Grammarians

4 Julian Galbally, South Melbourne Districts

5 Ricky Theodoropoulos, Bentleigh

6 Harrison Oliver, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

7 Max Hoult, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

8 Owen Bater, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

9 Rory Wight, Caulfield Grammarians

10 Ted Clayton, Beaumaris

11 Nathaniel Sulzberger, North Hobart Demons (Tas)

12 Harry Armstrong, Ormond

13 Alfie Lambert, East Brighton Vampires

14 Ned Maginness, East Brighton Vampires

15 Lennox Hofmann, Beaumaris/Old Brighton Grammarians.

16 Angus Phillips, De La Salle OC

17 James Arnold, East Brighton Vampires

18 Josh Dolan, Beaumaris

19 Luka Pecer, Beaumaris

20 Adrian Cole, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

21 Archer Grant, East Brighton Vampires

22 Murphy Reid, South Melbourne Districts

23 Luke Trainor, Bentleigh/Old Brighton

24 Brodie Findlay, Parkdale Vultures

25 Angus Bowd, Beaumaris

26 Hunter Lynch, Mordialloc Braeside

27 Xavier Bamert, East Malvern/Collegians

28 Dexter Prime, St Kilda City/St Kevins Old Boys

29 Pheonix Janover, Ajax

30 Taj Hotton, Hampton Rovers/Old Haileybury

31 Bailey McKenzie, South Melbourne Districts/Old Brighton

32 Miles Tyrer, South Melbourne Districts

33 Mitchell Kirkwood-Scott, Brighton Beach/Old Haileybury

34 Kye Fincher, East Brighton Vampires

35 Riely Collins, Redan

36 Sam Marshall, Kawana Park (Qld)

37 Aris Moustakis, South Melbourne Districts

38 Jhett Haeata, Beaumaris

39 Ollie Moodie, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

40 Harvey Allan, East Brighton Vampires

41 Bennett Martin, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

42 Benjamin Seers, Beaumaris

43 Oscar Cheetham, Prahran

44 Jack Cheep, Parkdale Vultures

45 Luke Kennedy, Ormond

46 Zach Travers, Brighton Beach/Old Brighton

47 Lachlan Voss, Port Melbourne Colts

48 Archie Edwards, South Melbourne Districts

49 Jack Hayter, East Brighton Vampires

50 Zach Hawkins, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

51 Jake Matthews, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

52 Aaron Taylor, Ormond

53 Samuel Fanning, East Sandringham/Old Brighton

55 Charlie Rozenes, Collegians

56 Max Chalamandaris, Beaumaris

57 Luke McGinness, East Brighton Vampires

58 Fletcher Teelow, East Brighton Vampires

59 Samuel Linder, East Brighton Vampires

60 Sacha Levine, Ormond

61 Sam Buck, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

62 Sam Haywood, Bentleigh

63 Freddy Brayshaw, Old Haileybury

64 James Georgiou, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

66 Edien Pitt, Ajax

68 Archie Ludowyke, East Sandringham Rovers

70 Jess Mildenhall, South Melbourne Districts

71 Jack Meredith, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

72 Sam Meredith, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers

76 Josh Cresswell, South Cairns Cutters

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COATES TALENT LEAGUE GRAND FINAL TRIVIA

* A Sandringham Dragons win will give them a record-equalling sixth Coates Talent League Boys premiership, joining the Calder Cannons.

* GWV Rebels will be competing in just their second grand final and first since 1997, when, competing as the North Ballarat Rebels, a six-goal haul to Adam Goodes helped them defeat Dandenong Stingrays by 35 points.