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BEN Keays was already a Brisbane Lions supporter when he moved from Melbourne to Brisbane as a five-year-old in 2002. His dad grew up a Fitzroy fan, and Keays attended the 2001 Grand Final when the club clinched a breakthrough premiership win.  

They went again to the Grand Final in 2004, when the Lions' run of three flags came to an end. "I was bawling my eyes out when we lost," Keays said. "That was a sad day."

Keays joined the Lions' academy a couple of years after moving to Brisbane, and has played with the club's NEAFL team over the past two seasons. He still shakes his head at the heroes he's been able to play with and meet in his time around the Lions so far.  

"Early on it was really weird. But I've loved every minute of it, rubbing shoulders with all the players and now that I've got to know the first-year players and the guys playing in the NEAFL a lot better, it feels like if I was to go to Brisbane at the end of the year the transition would be really smooth," Keays said.

"You walk past Simon Black, who's one of the midfield coaches, and he stops and says hello. That's when you think 'This is pretty crazy, Blacky's just stopped me in the corridor and having a chat to me'."

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The Lions will get first access to make Keays a permanent member of the club at November's NAB AFL Draft. As a member of their academy program, the Lions will be able to match a bid for him whenever it comes on draft night.

The prolific and hard-working midfielder would be pleased to join the club he grew up supporting, but is open to going elsewhere too.

"I'd love to [go to the Lions]. I know every kid says it, but being the footy lover I am, I wouldn't mind going anywhere," Keays said.

"But it would be awesome to join the Lions and play with some of my mates from last year like Harris Andrews and Liam Dawson and all those boys."

Alongside fellow possible top-20 Lions academy player Eric Hipwood, Keays will experience the bidding system differently to academy players of the past, with the AFL to introduce live bidding for the first time at this year's draft.

Keays has gotten his head around the complex process – "I don't know the exact points and all that, but I get the concept" – and thinks it will be more exciting than finding out in October, as had previously been the case for highly-rated academy prospects.

"Hopefully I get to experience it like every other kid. Now that they've done that, it's good that we all get to have the same kind of emotions and uncertainty around our future," he said.

"I reckon it's pretty fair and I think it'll be a good night. I'll enjoy the uncertainty and the pressure."

The club that ends up with Keays, should it be the Lions or another, will know the player they are getting: he's a busy midfielder who works up and down the ground, digs into packs, rips the ball out, slides forward to kick goals and performs every week.

He captained Queensland to its division two title at this year's NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, averaged 29 disposals and five clearances across the three games and won the Harrison Medal as the best player of the group.

Keays, whose father is a cousin of former Collingwood and Richmond player Terry Keays, is disciplined and determined, traits that also have him interested in joining the Australian Army. Footy will probably put those hopes on hold, but it remains something he'd like to pursue in the future.

"That's always been an interest of mine. Early on in my life it was either footy or that just because it's a physically demanding job," Keays said.

"It's kind of similar to footy but it's making a difference, it's helping out people and doing all that. Obviously if footy didn't work out that'd definitely be something I'd explore."

For now, making the AFL is the goal. Keays' under-18 season finished recently, but he still has one game to go, as a part of the Allies' team that meets the NAB AFL Academy squad (prospects eligible for the 2016 draft). The Grand Final curtain-raiser will be played at the MCG hours before the AFL premiership is decided.

"Jacob Allison and Jack Rolls are two Brisbane academy players playing for the under-17s, so it'll be good to come up against them," Keays said.