Adam Jones - WA Football State Talent Manager (22.06.2026)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Ray-Ban Meta Glasses take the friction out of travel. Move through the world with your hands free and your head up.

**Mark Duffield** (0:06)
Hey Meta, where's the nearest metro station?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:08)
Closest metro to you is Union Square, about three blocks away.

**Mark Duffield** (0:11)
Hey Meta, text Mom, I'm getting on the train now.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:13)
Sending message. Juggle your itinerary, take calls, and listen to music with open ear audio. No digging for your phone, no stopping for a map, just you and your glasses. Ray-Ban Meta, iconic style meets Meta AI. Available at Walmart and other authorized retailers.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:30)
Are all batteries the same?
That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats, because they're built different. And Messi only trusts Duracell.

**Mark Duffield** (1:06)
Yes, we've got Young Mr. Jones on the line, and we're gonna be talking about the best young players in Western Australia, and indeed nationally, the West Australian 18s, down 75-39 to the powerful Vic Metro team. Down at Coburn, down at the Ark on the weekend, Adam Jones, the state talent manager, joins us on the line now. Hello, Adam, how are you?

**Adam Jones** (1:30)
Good, thanks, Duff. Enjoy hearing that song every time I come on.

**Mark Duffield** (1:34)
One of my favourite tunes. And luckily, Paul Heath and Nia, they're very good at picking up what the best songs are to introduce our various guests. Hey, it was a disappointing second half for the WA boys against Vic Metro, but Leo Steed continues to underline his potential as a potentially a first round player.

**Adam Jones** (2:01)
No, absolutely. He's a gun Steedy.
And underpinned by just an insatiable competitiveness. He's one of the greatest competitors I've seen come through our program. So yeah, that's helping him put together some outstanding performances so far.

**Mark Duffield** (2:19)
So tell us about his lead into the season, because he did have a lot of extra stuff, as I understand it, to make sure he was going to have this sort of season in his draft year.

**Adam Jones** (2:29)
No, you spot on. Like, and he's the sort of kid that, you know, we didn't pick him in the squad last year, and he held a chip on his shoulder, and it drives him, motivates him. So, you know, he did with a dozen players, did some sprint stuff starting in October last year. He's put on a significant amount of size as well. And then his 2K are improved from 6.35 down to 6.10, from October to January. So in all aspects, he's made significant improvements. And then if you look at his kicking back at State 16s, I reckon in one of our games, he would have had 10 inside 50s but turned over most of them. And now his kicking is one of his absolute strengths. So it just says so much about him as a character, how much he's improved.
And yeah, as you said, we're seeing it in his performances now.

**Mark Duffield** (3:24)
24 disposals, 8 tackles, 6 clearances on the weekend. So definitely underlining himself as one to watch at the draft. George Gale had 28 with 5 tackles and 3 clearances. Tell us about his game. And also the question I've had a couple of recruiters raise about George is how quick is he, how good a runner is he going to be?
Give us your thoughts on that in terms of his draft status.

**Adam Jones** (3:52)
Yeah, no problem. So George is very similar to Steady in that he's improved many aspects of his game. And you see his body shape from 16 to when he's 18
It's been a little bit of a Nat 5 transformation, how he transformed his body. So that's really pleasing from that point of view. He was another boy that did speed training in the off season. And we're seeing that in his GPS. His 20-meter time probably doesn't reflect the improvement that we've seen in his speed. But in terms of GPS data, we saw there's a couple of key metrics you look at. And one is percentage of you're running over 20Ks an hour. And he's hitting AFL level with that. His top speed on the weekend was over 30Ks an hour. So he's going at a good click. And that's a big improvement from where he had been.
So yeah, he's going along beautifully, George. He's a great kid, captain of the team with Steve as well.