GREATER Western Sydney is yet to commit to either of its Academy prospects ahead of this month's draft period, with the club still weighing up whether its young pair Charlie McCormack and Harvey Thomas will attract rival bids.
The Giants can match a rival team's bid for either player at the national draft, while they can also commit to adding them as rookies if they're overlooked, though no decision has yet been made on either McCormack or Thomas.
McCormack is an athletic 198cm key forward who kicked 11 goals from four matches for the Allies at the national under-18s championships, while Thomas is a versatile 176cm midfielder that averaged 17.8 disposals in that title-winning campaign.
The Giants are only set to use three selections at the national draft and currently have picks No.7, 16 and 43, with recruiting boss Adrian Caruso telling AFL.com.au's trade and draft show Gettable that no call had yet been made on their Academy prospects.
"There's been no commitment," Caruso told Gettable.
"From our point of view, it's more let's do the work. We don't know whether or not they're going to get bid on, how high they might get bid on, could they be there as rookies? All of that sort of stuff is what we're going to try and find out in the next couple of weeks, through their managers and through chatting to the boys themselves and working it out.
"We're not committing to either of them at this point in time. But we always obviously try and promote from the Academy when we can.
"Harvey, in particular, has had a really strong year. He's put together a really good block of footy at Allies and then he's come back to Oakleigh Chargers and he's someone who we think probably deserves an opportunity. He probably is more likely to get bid on than Charlie at this stage."
As revealed by AFL.com.au last month, the League's new executive general manager of football Laura Kane has written to clubs asking for feedback on the Academy and father-son bidding systems.
The Giants – who have matched Academy bids on Harry Rowston, Josh Fahey and Tom Green in recent years – are comfortable with the situation, saying they'll back any improvements that can be made to the process.
"From our point of view, as long as there's the ability for us to develop homegrown talent via our Academy and then acquire it through the draft, we're happy. Whatever the rules are that are in place at that time, we'll deal with," Caruso said.
"Obviously, we benefited way back in the Jacob Hopper and Harry Himmelberg years, when we could accumulate all of these points. We went into the draft with 20 picks that had points attached to them.
"We took advantage of it then and right now, there's probably different things that can be taken advantage of in the system. That's always going to be the case. For us, we've got a job to do and we'll do that.
"The AFL will work with the clubs to work out what the best system is going forward and we'll deal with it. If it stays the same for the next 10 years, we'll be happy. If it changes, I'm sure it'll be changed for the better."
