Sharpshooter Jye Amiss is proudly calling himself a Fremantle Docker after an outstanding draft year saw him head to Freo at pick no.8 in the NAB AFL Draft on Wednesday.
The Fremantle recruiting team were confident putting the significant draft pick investment into Amiss, seeing plenty of upside in the Busselton youngster.
As well as countless training sessions, the 18-year-old made the six-hour return trip 15 times to play for East Perth in 2021.
He said the frequent travel took its toll by the end of the season and he was looking forward to settling in near Fremantle.
“I’m thrilled, I actually can’t believe it’s happened. It’s a dream come true and it’s always been a dream since I was a little kid,” Amiss said.
“The last couple of years, I was playing locally I think about three years ago and I came into the East Perth program last year, I started to build some footy there and coming into this year I wanted to build some consistency and play some good footy.
“This year’s been a massive grind, especially the trips where I’m at school and have to leave last period of school and get up to Perth in three hours and three hours back and home at 10.30pm.
“I’ve done that a fair few times over the years. I’ve just tried to get through it durng the year and it was great.”
The 196cm tall kicked an outstanding 51.15 through 15 games for the Royals, including a 7.0 haul against Peel and 6.1 against Perth.
His impressive accuracy came from the back of Amiss taking the time to work on a goalkicking routine that worked for him over the summer.
“During the pre-season I went on my off days and practiced different routines and took different steps and found one that worked,” Amiss said.
“It’s been modified a little bit but I kept that one routine and I tried to use that consistently week in week out.”
After being selected at no.8, he said he was thrilled to see WA teammate Neil Erasmus join him at Freo with pick no.10.
“I’m thrilled to have Neil also coming to the Club as well,” Amiss said.
“We’ve built a good relationship over the past month and I’m glad that he’s here too.
“He’s a tall midfielder, very explosive with good skills and quick hands. He’ll definitely be a player.”
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Amiss has some experience playing at Optus Stadium, representing WA against South Australia in the Grand Final curtain raiser.
While he unfortunately picked up a minor knee injury, he’s already recovered and ready to go for pre-season.
“It was really good and a really cool experience and hopefully later on down the track I can play there again,” Amiss said.
“It’s been really good. I had that knee injury during the curtain raiser. It was a month maybe out from training and two weeks ago I started full running and doing agility work and that sort of thing.
“Now I can’t wait to meet all the players, meet all the coaches, get stuck into training and see what we can do this year.”
