Highly-touted Sandringham Dragons midfielder Archie Perkins has told interstate clubs he isn't prepared to move outside of Victoria, requesting to remain in his home state to start his AFL career.
Perkins is tipped to land in the top 10 of Wednesday's draft and has gained plenty of interest from AFL clubs both from Victoria and interstate.
In an interview on SEN's Whateley, Perkins revealed he told interstate clubs he is "not ready" to venture outside of Victoria and begin his career away from home.
“I have (told clubs he wants to stay in Victoria). I hope they take that on board. I get that they do what’s in the best interests of their footy club, but I just think personally I’m not ready for that in my stage of life and I feel it would impact me too much,” he told Whateley.
“I don’t think it would be in their best interests as a footy club to have me there because I wouldn’t be 100 per cent with it if I was going over there and couldn’t really commit myself 100 per cent as opposed to staying here where I’d be 100 per cent ready to go and fully committed.
“I just don’t think I’m ready for that and I wanted to be honest about it.”
Perkins admitted there were reasons outside of his football career that drove his decision to notify specific clubs of his preference.
“It’s not everything. I think if it was it’d be detrimental to me as a person in my life. I think there’s a misconception about me that when I say that, people think I don’t care about footy or won’t be 100 per cent committed, that’s just 100 per cent not true,” he said.
“I’m really committed to footy, I really love the game and really want to have a good AFL career but at the same time I’ve got other things I enjoy in my life. I think when I’m balancing all those things then I get the best out of myself in my life.”
