COACH Paul Roos says the northern state AFL clubs now have a genuine edge in their recruiting stocks, as they continue to develop and hone their teenage academy players in readiness for draft age.  

It’s understood that up to 10 academy players shape as genuine draft prospects, with Swans academy member Isaac Heeney the standout this year – as a potential top five pick. For this scenario to happen, it means Sydney will have to use a first-round pick to secure him.

Roos said the ability for clubs to develop their talent in their early teenage years – even from non-traditional AFL states – was a significant gain, given he headed up the Swans’ academy before joining the Demons.

“It’s an enormous advantage for the Swans and Giants, and Lions and Gold Coast,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“You have your own players and to be able to train them the way you want to – it’s a huge advantage.

“It’s something that they’re going to get some terrific players out of over the next decade.”

Roos said this year’s overall talent pool was an “interesting” group.

“Just looking at the TAC Cup and watching [my son] Tyler [Roos] play for the [Sandringham] Dragons and watching a fair bit of the championships – there’s some high quality players,” he said.

“There’s probably not the absolute standouts that I’ve seen [previously], where [I say] ‘wow, look at him’. It’s more the high quality across the board.

“I think there’s going to be some really good players drafted at the end of the year, as there is every year. I suspect for all the boys, the next five or six weeks is pretty important to play well.

“I think the quality is there and there should be some good players coming into AFL footy at the end of the year.”

Roos was also proud of Tyler, who was a member of the recent victorious New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory under-18 team in the second division.

“I was able to watch the three games and it was a good effort for the New South Wales/[ACT] boys,” he said.

“Probably for me, it was fantastic [because] I’ve been working with those boys for three years and know a lot of the Sydney Swans academy boys and they’re really good kids.

“They’ve worked really hard over the last three to five years, since they’ve been in the academy, so it’s a good reward for them and a good reward for the Giants boys as well – I know a lot of those guys as well.

“It was exciting watching Tyler play and he played a terrific carnival. Winning the championship was great for football in New South Wales.”