Best Young Player from the Weekend (03.08.2026)

**Mark Duffield** (0:04)
Carrying the news It's time to talk about the young fellas, thanks to the next vintage Forrester Estate family-owned premium Margaret River wine. Paul Heath has joined me in the studio, and Heata, we've got a big blues theme today.

**Paul Heath** (0:20)
We had the big Bombers theme a couple weeks back, and they've dropped off the perch. So back to the blues now, who are very good on the weekend, and as we're saying, probably the leading candidate for the rising star, which you're going to talk about, but I'll talk about Harry Dean at 15 disposals, four marks, two tackles, 143 metres gained, five intercept possessions, two score involvements, and he kicked his first AFL goal on the weekend as well, which I thought was pretty great.

**Mark Duffield** (0:41)
And the crowd went nuts.

**Paul Heath** (0:43)
Yeah, went bunta.

**Mark Duffield** (0:44)
And so did he. They went bunta.

**Paul Heath** (0:46)
Yes, bunta.

**Mark Duffield** (0:48)
It's a big event in the AFL when the crowd goes bunta, when there's 41,000 fans there. No, he was absolutely fantastic. I wonder whether he's second banana for the rising star now.

**Paul Heath** (1:01)
I think with how it's sort of framed, I think so. Yeah, unfortunately.

**Mark Duffield** (1:05)
Yeah, unfortunately for Will.

**Paul Heath** (1:07)
Yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (1:08)
So yeah, no surprises here. I've gone for Jagger Smith. So 29 disposals, two goals, two marks, three tackles, six centre clearances, a goal assist, 330 metres going, 12 score involvements. And Heata, you're telling me he went at 97% disposal efficiency. Probably because he handballed a lot.
When you're a highly skilled player, as Jagger clearly is, you don't miss many handballs. You know who he reminds me of?

**Paul Heath** (1:37)
Who's that?

**Mark Duffield** (1:37)
He reminds me of Caleb Sarong.

**Paul Heath** (1:39)
Yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (1:39)
Completely different body shape.
But he's clean, he doesn't fumble. He makes really good, clear decisions quickly, which means that even though he's lightly framed, he can play on the inside around stoppage, because he's just so quick and so clean.

**Paul Heath** (1:56)
I was so impressed that it was six clearances, six center clearances, which just gets your team going the right direction, and it gets them towards scoring, which is great.

**Mark Duffield** (2:03)
Especially when you're up against the big bodies of Brisbane as well.

**Paul Heath** (2:07)
Done very well there.