Two years on from being selected by Fremantle at no.8 in 2019, Caleb Serong still has a good reason to pay close attention at the NAB AFL Draft.
The 20-year-old’s younger brother Jai is one of the hundreds of draft hopefuls going into the Wednesday and Thursday draft, and while he hopes Jai will make his way onto an AFL list, he has his fingers crossed the pair can join forces at Fremantle.
Unlike the 178cm midfielder, Caleb’s brother Jai stands at 193cm and impressed mostly as a forward in his draft year for the Gippsland Power.
Caleb said he’s given Fremantle’s recruiting team space despite wanting to push the case for a second Serong at Fremantle.
“I’ve been trying to stay out of it! I was on my phone wondering, do I text him? (Fremantle’s Head of Player Personnel David Walls),” Serong said.
“But nah, I’ll leave it up to those guys. I really trust what they’re doing.
“As a family, we’re really excited about this week and the potential of hopefully Jai getting drafted. He’s put in a lot of hard work and a lot of stuff behind the scenes that no-one really sees because of the shutdown, as the Victorian kids haven’t been able to play much.
“I feel for all of those guys who are trying to get drafted this year without much footy behind their backs. We’re all really excited about the next few days and fingers crossed he gets the opportunity.”
No matter where Jai finishes up, Serong said he will be excited to welcome two more top-10 draftees to Fremantle, with Freo holding picks 6, 8, 19, 60 and 68 going into the event.
The first round will be held on Wednesday evening with the second round onwards held on Thursday.
“I’m just really excited for those kids to come in and buy into the Freo way,” Serong said.
“We know they’re going to be really talented but we just can’t wait to get them in and get them used to what we’re doing – our trademark and everything that we’re building as a club.
“We’ve got a young group that’s driven, so they’re going to come in and feel right at home. As a group, we’re really excited about those guys coming in.”
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