Eight senior players departed Fremantle last year and with them went more than 1500 AFL games of experience. The club saw this as an unprecedented opportunity to reinvigorate the playing list through the National and Rookie drafts.

As a result 14 young players, eight via the National Draft and six from the Rookie Draft, were recruited.

So far this season seven players have made their AFL debut for Fremantle, the most of any club in the league. Six of the seven debutants are first-year players and include three players elevated from the rookie list.

While the club was determined to revitalise its playing list with a youth policy, it was equally conscious of the need to provide the resources to ensure the new arrivals had the best possible environment in which to develop.

Along with new Sports Science Manager Jason Weber and Strength and Conditioning Coach Chris Spinks, the medical staff was also boosted with the appointment of a second doctor plus an additional physiotherapist.

In the football department, the skills and development areas were significantly enhanced, with Stephen Malaxos taking on the new key role of Player Development Coach.

In the feature article from the latest edition of Docker, Player Development Coach Stephen Malaxos charts the progress of the club’s ‘Department of Youth’.

In the following article, Malaxos provides his assessment of how the 14 new players have progressed in their first season at Fremantle.

HAYDEN BALLANTYNE

We see Hayden as a ready-made long-term player for Fremantle. He has a lot of power for his size, plus speed and agility.

He’s quite dynamic.

Recruited from Peel, the 2008 Sandover Medallist was Fremantle’s second round selection (number 21 overall) in last year’s draft.

Before being drafted we were aware that he’d previously had an operation on his wrist and it was subsequently established that he would require further surgery to address the injury.

He has done a mountain of running, so fitness won’t be a problem.
We have been concentrating on getting him match hardened and putting a lot of work into his ball handling and kicking.

As you would expect during the recovery phase, Hayden’s ability to work on marking, tackling and ball handling was affected but we expect him to come to hand pretty quickly.

He was due to make his AFL debut in round 11 against Port Adelaide but was a late withdrawal due to back spasms.

BEN BUCOVAZ

Ben is the right size to play either forward or back. We also think he could develop into a bigger bodied on-baller.

Interestingly, bigger bodied on-ballers have become a noticeable trend in the AFL in the past couple of years.

But we will need to work on his endurance for him to become an on?baller, so that makes it more of a long-term project.

Ben’s WAFL club is Claremont. Because he had hip surgery in January he only started playing in the Tigers’ reserves in early May.

Although he’s had reduced game time, we think he’s done quite well, given his late start to the season.

He’s quite engaging on the field and is a good decision maker.

He has a good non-preferred kick, so much so that it’s hard to tell if he’s a right or left foot kick.

In the second half of the season, we would expect him to be playing good football in the WAFL and then be able to put himself in a situation where he could play for Fremantle towards the end of the season.

GREG BROUGHTON

Greg made his debut in round 3 against Adelaide after being elevated from the rookie list in March.

A dual premiership player with Subiaco, he was picked up in the 2008 Rookie Draft and came to us having already started his pre-season with the Lions, so that gave him a bit of a head start on his counterparts.

He comes from a strong WAFL background, having been a solid half-back for a few years in a good team.

He is pretty understated and goes about his football with quiet determination. He trains well, plays hard and is a really solid, efficient defender.

He’s got good kicking and handball skills, so we’ve focused on enhancing the basics to further improve those skills with him and put it into an AFL context.

With a full pre-season next year, we would expect to get his speed, running and endurance to another level.

That will be an important phase for Greg but in the meantime we would expect him to play more AFL and consolidate his place in the team.

ZACHARY CLARKE

Zac came to Fremantle after knocking back a college basketball scholarship in the U.S. and having played only one season of football.

At 203cm, he was recruited as the definitive developing ruckman.
What it means is that we had modest expectations for him this year, and even the next.

But it’s fair to say that he’s already exceeded those expectations to some degree.
He’s been the number one ruckman for his WAFL club East Perth and has held himself well against opposition ruckmen.

Since arriving at Fremantle, Zac hasn’t missed a beat at training. He is a good runner with good endurance, particularly for his size.

He has shown that from day one, so we have been working on the technical aspects of rucking, plus reading the play, anticipation, decision making and where to run.
They are often the most challenging aspects for a player to pick up on but we are confident about Zac’s ability in that regard.

His basketball background has certainly helped to an extent.

His footy understanding, or football smarts, are at the level of someone who has had such a short time in the game and, basically, come straight to football from basketball.

We would expect his good form to continue with East Perth this season before playing a few games for Fremantle.

MATTHEW DE BOER

Matthew was elevated to the senior list in March after being recruited from Claremont in last year’s Rookie Draft.

He made his debut in round 6 against West Coast.

Matthew is confident and has good leadership qualities.

He came to us with a reputation for being competitive and a good ball getter who needed to enhance his skills.

We believe that his hard work has seen his kicking improve and that there is still room for further improvement.

His competitiveness and willingness to mix it physically on the field saw him get an opportunity to play senior footy quite early in the season.

For a first-year player he has acquitted himself reasonably well.

If you were setting a goal for him, you would say it would be to reach double figures for the year in terms of senior games.

If Matthew can hold down his position for the rest of the year that would be a really good effort… and he might just do that.

He has a willingness to learn and improve, and an appetite for the contest.

Overall he has done quite well, so he really needs to keep at it.

CHRIS HALL

Chris played senior football for Woodville-West Torrens in 2008 and was Fremantle’s sixth round selection (number 77 overall) in last year’s National Draft.

He has got good endurance, good kicking skills and is a sound decision maker.

The areas we are working on with Chris involve his power, which will aid his speed.
Chris was recovering from glandular fever towards the end of last year, so had a bit of a slow start to the pre-season.

Although he didn’t start training until January, he hasn’t missed a session since and has played some reasonable games for East Fremantle.

He’s a quiet, intelligent young man, who is very coachable.

Our expectations for Chris are that he continues to play consistent football in the WAFL this year, which would set him up for a good 2009 pre-season and then challenge to play senior footy in 2010.

STEPHEN HILL

Stephen was Fremantle’s first round draft pick and made his debut in round 1. He vindicated the club’s recruiting staff by picking up a NAB Rising Star nomination for his performance against West Coast in round 6.

He came to us with really good running ability and being in the AFL system has enhanced that.

In a football sense it was felt that he had the ability to take the game on and break lines, and we’ve encouraged him to do that.

He started well in the pre-season scratch matches and in his first few games he probably went slightly better than was depicted.

Because of his ability to bring other players into the game, Stephen, along with several team mates, was instrumental in our three consecutive wins in rounds 5 to 7.
As the season has progressed, he has grown in confidence.

We’ve been mindful of the work he has done in games so far, so his workload has been changed to reflect that.

He’s tall enough, has the judgement and the spring to take a really good mark.
That’s one element, in time, that he will be able to improve and add another dimension to his game.

In time he will have increased opportunity to play in the midfield.

CLANCEE PEARCE

An All-Australian under-18, Clancee was a solid defender for Swan Districts in 2008 and played in their grand final side.

He trained at Hawthorn for a few weeks before coming to us via the 2008 Rookie Draft.

He missed part of the pre-season due to injury and missed the first game of the WAFL season for Swans.

But since then he has been a very consistent player for them across half?back.

We’ve been working on getting his running fitness up to another level and he’s definitely improved in that regard.

We’d also like to see Clancee develop in different roles.

While he plays defence well, you’d like to see him play on-ball and even up forward.
Clancee’s a strong bodied type and not frightened to get his head over the ball. In time, when his fitness increases, he’s likely to finish up as an on-baller.

He’s competitive, reads the ball well and when the ball is in his area he really wants it. Or if his opponent gets it, he makes it damn difficult for them.

Clancee made his AFL debut against Port Adelaide in round 11 and showed he was capable of mixing it at the elite level.

TIM RUFFLES

At the 2008 draft camp, Tim rated quite highly for speed and agility. He had also played some good footy in the under-18s for North Ballarat and represented NSW in the U18s.

He’s lightly framed but since he’s been with us has put on a bit of weight and will continue to do so. He needs some improvement in his endurance to take it to the next level.

He has played pretty well for Perth in the WAFL and has surprised us all with his attack on the ball. His desperation around the footy has seen him commit several really courageous acts.

At Perth, where Andrew Jarman has a done a really good job and taken him under his wing, Tim has played both back and forward.

We are focusing on improving his running and strength, and consistency in everything that he does.

HAMISH SHEPHEARD

Hamish had a couple of setbacks during the pre-season after training with East Perth colts last year.

Hamish has had to adapt from training a couple of nights a week when he was in Margaret River to the rigours of the AFL system.

After a couple of games in the reserves at East Perth, he was elevated sooner than we anticipated and played his first league game with the Royals in mid-May.

We think he will end up with quite a decent frame, which is something we will develop and improve over the next couple of years.

Hamish can play forward or back and has a good football brain, so our focus is on developing his fitness and strength.

His marking, kicking and football nous are quite sound.

It’s just going to be a matter of getting him physically to the level required for AFL.

CASEY SIBOSADO

From Beagle Bay, near Broome, Casey represented the Northern Territory at the 2008 NAB AFL under-18 Championships, but spent most of the season as a boarder at Xavier College in Melbourne and played in the TAC Cup with the Oakleigh Chargers.

He was a first round draft pick (number three overall) in last year’s Rookie Draft.

He’s done all the training and has improved his fitness significantly since arriving at Fremantle.

Early on, he was playing reserves at Claremont which allowed him to work on areas of his game that needed improvement.

He’s done that and we expect that he would continue to play well in the seniors for Claremont for the rest of the season.

It’s envisaged that he will develop as a good WAFL forward and then we’ll build on that next year.

As well as having the ability to play up on a wing, he has the potential to do some brilliant things… kick a long goal or take a great mark.

But at this stage we are concentrating on getting him to do the basics more regularly.

NICHOLAS SUBAN

Nic came to us with good football pedigree in the under-18s… captain of Vic Country and a two-time All?Australian.

Fremantle’s second round pick (number 24 overall) in the 2008 draft, he had a good pre-season and his scratch match form was good enough to see him debut alongside Stephen Hill in round 1 against the Western Bulldogs.

He has a good, penetrating kick, makes good decisions and shows good leadership qualities on the field.

Off the field he’s a pretty quiet and respectful young man.

Nic has played mainly in defence in his games for Fremantle but in time we hope to develop him as an on?baller.

To do that we will have to improve his running capacity and endurance.

When he’s got the ball, Nic is quite composed and doesn’t panic.

He’s still adapting to the workload of an AFL game but we understand that.

When he gets on top of that and gets his fitness up, he’ll get hold of the ball more and his disposals will be even more telling.

While we expect that he will play most of his games in the seniors, we are also taking into account the need to balance his workload.

JAY VAN BERLO

Jay played against Richmond and North Melbourne in the pre-season competition but has had to overcome injury.

If he hadn’t suffered a setback early in the season, we would expect him to have challenged for a game in the seniors.

The brother of Adelaide’s Nathan Van Berlo, he won the best and fairest for West Perth’s league side in 2008 after undergoing pre-season shoulder surgery.

He’s tough, disciplined, has great endurance and good leadership skills.

Jay was Fremantle’s fifth round pick (number 62 overall) in last year’s Rookie Draft.
Nathan Van Berlo is an elite runner with the Crows and we believe that Jay has the potential to match that.

He’s a pretty composed type of player who plays the percentages well. We are hopeful that he will be back playing towards the end of June.

It’ll take a bit of time, but ideally we would like to see him play well for West Perth and then challenge for a senior berth with Fremantle towards the end of the season.

MICHAEL WALTERS

Michael made his debut in round 11 against Port Adelaide after getting a last minute call up to replace the injured Hayden Ballantyne.

A fourth round selection (number 53 overall) in last year’s draft, he was recruited from Swan Districts.

He has clean hands in tight, good disposal with a good left foot kick and sound decision making skills.

When the ball is in his hands and he’s forward of centre, Michael has the potential to have a real impact, which we saw against Port.