JOSH Kelly and Christian Salem share a lot more than the likelihood they will both be early selections at next month's NAB AFL Draft.

 

They have played representative footy together at the Sandringham Dragons and Vic Metro, and went to school together at Brighton Grammar in Melbourne.

 

Wherever the draft takes them, Kelly and Salem are confident they'll always be friends. AFL.com.au caught up with the pair at this week's NAB AFL Draft Combine.

 

"I first met him in year six when he came to Brighton Grammar. He was pretty quiet but everyone knew he was pretty good at footy. That year we went to Sydney with the Victorian under-12s side and got to know each other a bit better then.

 

He was pretty small. He was the only one in that whole team wearing a helmet. He was quiet.

 

We didn't play local level together, because he was at East Brighton and I was at Hampton Rovers. We actually played each other quite a bit. I was in the west division and he was in the east division until the under-14s.

 

He was good. We ended up beating him for the premiership a bit later on when we were down by about three goals with five minutes left and came back to win.

It has been cool playing pretty much everything together, from the under-15s, 16s and then in the school's first XVII team. We've had strong teams in all of it. 

 

The last two years have been great. It was awesome to see Josh go well last year. I'm not really one to be upset if a good mate's going well and I was pumped for him.

 

I remember in the game at Geelong for Vic Metro last year, he was playing well against Vic Country. I was watching from the stands with Joey Daniher and was watching him kick goals from everywhere and was playing really well.

 

When he was going for the mini-draft last year, it would have been sad to see him move interstate if he was picked but obviously if the chance came up I wanted him to get it.

 

Josh is a good player because he works hard and always does the extra stuff. Even though he doesn't like to do the ice baths, he still does it. He probably does even more things and doesn't tell me about it.

 

He works hard at school. He studies a lot. I walk into the study period and I'll always ask if he wants to come for a kick of the soccer ball and he'll just be studying, typing up his notes and telling me to go away.

 

I'm very excited about what's coming up. Obviously a lot of hard work's gone into it and to think the draft is only six or so weeks away is pretty scary.

 

It's obviously the biggest possibility that we'll be separated when the draft comes but that's fine. We've grown up together and we'll still stay close."

"I was at Brighton Primary School but then we moved to the road across from Brighton Grammar so I changed schools.

 

Christian made it easy to fit in and he was the biggest one at the school. I don't think he's grown since. He was about six-foot tall then and had his little pack of friends walking around school.

 

My footy was probably a way to make some friends. Meeting other players and having that something similar, it was a good way to fit in.

 

We were playing all the local rep leagues as well, along with a few other boys, and we had some classes together. The friendship probably started with footy and grew from there.

 

Christian's a bit of a mummy's boy, so when he forgets his lunch he just calls up his dad and asks him to come drop off some lunch from his restaurant to school, be it a burger or salad or whatever.

 

He's a good friend. He's always doing funny stuff when he's in a room, and trying to keep people happy.

 

We're both into a lot of sports. With a few other mates, we play a fair bit of FIFA and sometimes then watch the English Premier League on TV and get the nachos out to eat. He tries to play FIFA, but I usually knock him off. We also play a little bit five-on-five soccer occasionally as well.

 

He's competitive. I beat him in goalkicking at the Dragons and he ends up chasing me around trying to deck me. And when he does win the mini-games that we play sometimes, he never wins fairly – ask any of the trainers.

 

This year has been good. We both train together at everything, and try to push each other. Working towards the same goal of hopefully getting drafted has been really good. He's someone to share the hard work and up and downs with.

 

Our families are also pretty close having got to know each other. They get along really well and have known each other through footy a long time too.

 

With the draft, you don't really know where anybody's going to end up.

 

Hopefully all of us are lucky enough to get drafted, and I'd be stoked to hear my name called out but I'd want to hear all my mates, like Christian, have their names called and see what's happening to them as well.

 

We've both been working at this for ages and we'd both be happy to get an AFL club, wherever that is."

 

Twitter: @AFL_CalTwomey