The national draft is under a month away and East Perth's Jake Soutar is preparing to push for an early second round-late first round selection. But unlike his peers around him, Soutar is already 20 years old.
A 190cm athletic intercepting defender, Soutar's stocks have soared in 2026 playing for the Royals and he looms as a quality pick up in this year's draft.
The likes of West Coast's Milan Murdock (25 when picked up) and Marcus Herbert (23), Geelong's Shaun Mannagh (26) and Lawson Humphries (20) and Collingwood's Angus Anderson (22) pose as recent examples of AFL-quality players nearly lost to the state league system.
Former Fremantle player and general manager of football Peter Bell said AFL recruiters' infatuation with only 17-18-year-olds frustrates him.
"Everyone has got a different journey to reaching their potential. (Soutar) wasn't ready at 18, but he has done everything right since then," Bell said on SEN WA Breakfast.
"He did a lot of (draft) combine preparation with the young fellas the 18-year-olds. He said, 'Looking at the 18-year-olds and where I was at, I was nowhere near that when I was 18', just understanding the professionalism and everything else.
"If you stick at it, and you have got to be gifted and talented as well and everything else, but if you stick at it, that's another validation - and I'm expecting him to be drafted - of the WAFL system doing a great job of developing players who might not have reached the appropriate heights at 18 years of age, which is a lot of people right?
"It's one of my bugbears within the AFL system. If you don't get drafted at 18, all of a sudden there is a line put through your name and you're not really contemplated as a 19-year-old or 20-year-old.
"Sometimes only a couple of months have elapsed and all of a sudden you have fallen off the cliff to be thought of as a potential AFL player."
The scouting of mature age talents is something clubs appear to be more open to in recent years with a number of ready-made state league talents making the step up successfully to AFL level.
But every club will have to improve at finding diamonds in the state league rough with Tasmania's entry into the league coming soon set to dilute and stretch the junior draft pool.
As will the 20th team which is expected to come in years after. There simply isn't enough 17-18-year-old talent for 20 clubs. So eyes will have to be focused on the WAFL, VFL, SANFL and even deeper into local football to help build out each team's squad of 44.
In terms of where Soutar may start his AFL journey, Bell said his former club Fremantle is looking at the 20-year-old as an option with Pick 19.
"(The Dockers' first pick) might be a little early for (Soutar) but he has really impressed. Probably not a genuine key position height," he said.
"Very athletic, tested really well at the state combine a couple of weekends ago. It might be a bit of a stretch for Fremantle, could be a bit early."
