The Werribee Tigers are a proud, standalone club in the VFL competition, and in recent years, have made waves on both the state and national levels.
The past two campaigns have seen the Tigers reach the grand final, redeeming their heartbreaking loss in 2023 to secure its second premiership, the first since 1993, by defeating the Southport Sharks by six points 12 months later.
As a result, four players were drafted to the AFL, namely Shaun Mannagh (Geelong), Sam Clohesy (Gold Coast) and more recently Aidan Johnson (Melbourne) and Riley Bice (Sydney).
Werribee captain and 2024 J.J. Liston Trophy winner Dom Brew has been given the opportunity to train at the Western Bulldogs in the hope of signing as a pre-season Supplemental Selection Period (SSP) prospect, while West Coast's invitation of Jack Henderson before the deadline adds yet another name to the list.
Add former Tigers player Harry Boyd to the mix, and the footy factory coming out of Werribee is a national benchmark.
Only seven of the 21 teams in the VFL aren't aligned with an AFL club – Williamstown, Port Melbourne, Southport, Coburg, Frankston and the Northern Bullants the others – but no other state-league side is having the same promotional success as the Tigers.
Mannagh joined the Cats ahead of the 2024 campaign, and after an early-season debut, cracked into Chris Scott's side in Round 17 and never looked back, kicking 14 goals from 10 outings as a high half-forward.
Clohesy was the next cab off the rank, signing with the Suns after a stellar season in the VFL, securing the prized Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal as the competition's most promising young talent. The former Tiger played 20 games under Damien Hardwick as a hard-running winger in 2024, averaging 16 disposals and four marks.
Then came Johnson and Bice.
Following their premiership success in the VFL, the Demons and Swans recognised their talent could be applied at the elite level.
Johnson is earmarked for an early-season debut at Melbourne, coming into the club as a bustling and commanding key forward, which the club has lacked in recent years.
As for Bice, he joins the 2024 grand finalists as a rebounding defender, likely to assist Nick Blakey in the coming years and replace the soon-to-be-outgoing club stalwarts Harry Cunningham and Dane Rampe.
But it doesn't end there.
Brew, a heart-and-soul player, continues to train with the Bulldogs in the hope of joining his former teammates at the elite level.
And now, Henderson, who has every chance of replacing the fallen veteran Dom Sheed as the Eagles opened up a second spot on their list.
These emerging talents have - or could - followed in the footsteps of fellow Tigers alumni.
North Melbourne's Ben Brown benefitted from the club's affiliation with Werribee to carve out a 175-game career, including a premiership in 2021 with Melbourne.
GWS key forward Jake Riccardi is currently fashioning a successful football path after showcasing his immense talent at the state-league club.
Even two-time Gold Coast best and fairest winner Sam Collins has defied the odds of materialising a prosperous AFL career, dating back to his time at the Tigers.
The Tigers' resurgence post-COVID has seen recruiters take a second glance at what the standalone club has to offer and provides a whole new lens of where AFL players can come from.
