Parker, Moore, Spooner invited to Draft Combine

MATTHEW Parker, Luke Moore and Regan Spooner have all been earmarked as potential AFL Draft prospects for later this year and invited to the WA State Draft Combine on October 14.

On the back of the success of Tim Kelly being drafted to Geelong following his 93-game WAFL career at South Fremantle including his standout 2017 season where he was runner-up to Haiden Schloithe in both the Sandover Medal and WJ Hughes Medal, the door could be open more than ever for mature-aged player.

The first sign that Parker has a genuine chance of an AFL just over 12 months after making his WAFL debut with South Fremantle was of him being invited to the WA State Draft Combine.

State Draft Combines will be held in October across WA, South Australia, Victoria, NSW-ACT, Northern Territory and Queensland with the players having the chance to show off their athletic attributes to put their name up in lights ahead of the AFL Draft later in the year.

Parker initially played a season of reserves football at Perth in 2015 without much fanfare before a standout season with Melville in the Amateurs in 2016 brought him to the attention of South Fremantle.

He did a pre-season with the Bulldogs in 2017 and then having been made to earn his stripes by playing 17 games for 14 goals in the reserves, he got the call up to make his league debut at South Fremantle in Round 19 against West Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Parker made an immediate impact kicking four goals on debut and he held his place in the Bulldogs team the rest of the 2017 season including kicking three goals in the qualifying final loss to Peel Thunder.

He also took part in the preliminary final loss to Subiaco where he was from South Fremantle’s worst player on the day finishing with 16 possessions and nine marks.

The 22-year-old has now put together a tremendous 2018 season to date in the league team with South Fremantle as well with his place in the team becoming all the more valuable with injuries throughout the campaign to Cory Dell’Olio and Ben Saunders, and the absence of Blaine Johnson.

Along the way this season, Parker now has kicked 24 goals including hauls of three in Round 6 against Swan Districts, Round 9 against East Fremantle and Round 10 against Perth.

With his pace and cleverness around goals, tackling pressure, ability to take a mark and be tremendous at ground level, Parker would be a natural fit to be drafted and he could thrive if given a chance at AFL level.

He isn’t the only South Fremantle player invited to the Draft Combine though with Regan Spooner and Luke Moore to be the Bulldogs’ other representatives.

Coming off a good season in the colts in 2017, Spooner has impressed further in 2018 in his seven colts matches before playing his first reserves game last week against West Perth and performing well with 18 possessions and five marks.

He also showed some good signs in the WA State 18s team in 2018 as did Moore who has also been impressive in the colts at South Fremantle having kicked 17 goals in 10 games so far this season.