Top 10 AFL Draft prospect Gus Teixeira has been lauded as a “prototype AFL midfielder”.
The Sandringham Dragons star missed the early part of the season with injury after a summer which set him up to take his game to the next level.
By his second game of the year, a Vic Metro trial which he dominated, many recruiters had him ensconced in the top 10 players of the crop – some knocking on the door of the top five.
“He keeps going from strength to strength. He's powerful, quick, covers the ground well, he's a really good ball user by foot so he's a prototype AFL midfielder,” his Sandringham coach Rob Harding told Zero Hanger.
His Talent League form has been strong and he played his best game for school side St Kevin's College a fortnight ago, dictating terms in the midfield against Xavier College.
He used that as a launchpad for a strong trial game on Sunday, racking up plenty of the footy and looking a class above in the engine room.
“He was pretty accomplished last year given he was part of our inside midfield group at the end of last year and for us, we just wanted to see him take that to the next level which he's done. He got voted into our leadership group off the back of his training standards,” Harding added.
“He's a powerful dynamic midfielder. He combines power, speed and ball-use and the other bit we've liked is his ability to go forward and hit the scoreboard and kick a goal or two a week and challenge opposition defences to have to defend that so Gus has all of those attributes.”
St Kilda attempted to have Teixeira included in its Next Generation Academy this year due to his Brazilian heritage, aware of his talent, but had the request denied because the South American country was not in the NGA zone last year.
