BRISBANE father-son prospect Will Ashcroft will this week line up for the Lions' VFL side after a brilliant start to his draft season.
Ashcroft, the son of Lions triple-premiership star Marcus, has dominated at NAB League level for the Sandringham Dragons in the early stages of this season.
And with the NAB League going into a competition recess after three rounds, Ashcroft will this week train with the Lions' AFL squad and fly to Sydney to face the Swans in the VFL on Sunday.
The midfielder, who turns 18 next week, trained with the Lions over summer and completed his year 12 schooling last year. He is likely to play a handful of games for the Lions' VFL side this year when fixturing makes it possible.
He started his NAB League season with 18 disposals against Oakleigh in round one but has lifted things considerably in recent weeks, gathering 38 disposals and nine clearances in round two, 36 disposals and 12 clearances in round three and on Saturday he had 34 disposals and kicked a brilliant last-quarter goal on the run.
His polish and clean skills as well as ability to hunt the ball make him a likely top-five pick and a No.1 contender.
He told AFL.com.au in March that he would leave his decision on nominating as a father-son pick to the Lions until later in the year.
"My main priority is to play, keep working on my leadership and hopefully help people get drafted through Sandy as well. Hopefully wherever I land in the draft is where I deserve to be but it's not a big deal in my opinion. It's just getting on a list," Ashcroft said.
"Obviously the Lions will be there and it will be weighed up when the decision time comes. I love Melbourne as well and it's home now probably as much as Queensland is so it's going to be interesting for sure."