WERRIBEE’s drought-breaking premiership success has received a stunning addendum with two breakout stars seeing their dreams come true in the 2024 Telstra AFL Draft.
And the VFL’s remarkable Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal run also continued with Richmond forward Sam Davidson finding his way to the Western Bulldogs as one of three players drafted from the Smithy’s VFL.
Both of Werribee’s draftees – 185cm intercept defender Riley Bice and physical 193cm forward Aidan Johnson – hail from the Ovens and Murray league, a fertile breeding ground for Werribee and the AFL.
The pair join Shaun Mannagh, Sam Clohesy, Jake Riccardi, Josh Corbett and Kye Declase to be drafted from Werribee in recent years.
Bice was the first VFL player selected in this year’s Draft when he was taken at pick 41 by 2024 runner-up Sydney.
The 24-year-old dominated his first full year at VFL level after moving down from Albury, where he had played under the coaching of 2017 J.J. Liston Trophy winner Anthony Miles.
Possibly the first junior from Hume league club Murray Magpies to make it to the AFL, he had previously played two NEAFL and three VFL matches as a top-up for the GWS Giants.
Bice got better as the 2024 season went on, playing 21 games and averaging 21.8 disposals, 6.9 marks and 4.8 rebound-50s.
He moved onto the Draft radar with 29 disposals and 14 marks against Coburg, 31 touches and 11 marks against Port Melbourne and 35 possessions and nine marks in the qualifying final against Geelong.
He then saw off the close attention of Southport’s Jack and Will Sexton to have 23 disposals, six marks and eight rebounds in the Grand Final victory to write his name in permanent marker on Swans recruiting guru Kinnear Beatson’s whiteboard.
Johnson was selected by Melbourne at pick 68.
He played in Lavington’s 2019 Ovens and Murray premiership alongside last year’s success story Mannagh, but had made just one VFL appearance – back in 2021 – before this year due to injury.
The 24-year-old competitive beast, who also won a Hume league flag at Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock in 2018, locked down his position in Jimmy Allan’s best team this year as the forward line enforcer.
He averaged 10.9 disposals and kicked 17 goals in 20 matches while also chopping out in the ruck, which included crucially helping to wear Sharks gun ruckman Brayden Crossley down in the second half of the Grand Final.
Davidson, who became a Bulldog at pick 51, starred in local leagues around Victoria while studying to become a doctor before finally having a crack in the VFL this year.
The 22-year-old burst onto the scene, kicking 26.13 in 17 matches, including a six-goal haul from 19 disposals and eight marks against the Northern Bullants that thrust him to the front of everyone’s minds during a run of 11 majors in three weeks.
He averaged 14.4 disposals and 3.8 marks for Richmond to win the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal as the most promising VFL player under the age of 24, with the past 18 winners of the award finding their way onto an AFL list.