Jasper Chellappah ESPN Draft Guru (05.10.2026)

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Mark Duffield (0:30)

Time to talk AFL Draft with ESPN Draft Guru Jasper Chellappah. He joins us on the show now. Jasper, welcome.

Jasper Chellappah (0:38)

G'day Duff. Great to hear from you.

Mark Duffield (0:41)

Hey, the AFL trade period is under way, obviously, at the moment, and obviously, that feeds into the draft. And what clubs' requirements may or may not be is heavily dependent on what happens in the trade period. But let's cut to the chase with West Coast. At the moment, West Coast has pick three in the draft. Now we expect with bids on Dougie Cochran and Cody Walker, that will slide to pick five. What sort of player is going to be available to West Coast at pick five? And what sort of player would you say looking at West Coast's list that they need?

Jasper Chellappah (1:18)

For me, there's still five in the mix for Essendon's number one pick. And West Coast is going to be a little bit in the dark ahead of the draft, as opposed to previous years where we kind of know where the players at the top of the board are going to fit into what clubs. It is a little bit more obscured right now in terms of the players at Essendon, and Richmond ahead of West Coast right now are really keen on. I think Ethan Drever and Archie Butler are the most likely to land at one and two right now. That would leave the West Australian Heath Melody on the board at pick three, taking away all of the bids for Dougie and potentially Cody Walker as well.

He's that running halfback who's turned into a midfielder this year, won the Lark Medal. Obviously, you would have seen him playing for Claremont in the grand, finally played six games at league level to finish his year off, and he went from a top 10 chance to a genuine pick one contender within the back half of the year this year. And being a local product helps, obviously, but at the same time, I still think that he is that class on the outside polish that they desperately want to add into that midfield mix. And I think he can play on the outside, off halfback, off a wing to start his career and graduate on ball in time. But make no mistake about it, I think he's a genuine top three chance and West Coast is right in the mix for him. There's a couple others. Gustav Scherer is a powerful forward half midfielder, who I think will be around the mark for West Coast. And Harry Van Hadum is the key, the ruckman in the crop who I think is potentially a slide candidate.

Unfortunately for him, rucks still aren't quite in vogue at the draft level. We saw Luke Jackson and Heath Melody could become the highest pick taken out of WA since Luke Jackson, if he does go at three or four to West Coast. But I just don't think that they're quite in vogue for him to be a top five pick this year. And then the key forward is making the bolt, and I don't think it will be West Coast, but Sam Gafer is right in the mix in the top five to ten now.

Mark Duffield (3:10)

There's also another one which is an interesting character, Will Melody. Where does he sit?

I know Kel Toomey had him sort of just inside his top ten about a month ago. Where is he now? Because I guess one thing West Coast do need is players with serious X-Factor, and he looks like he's got some.

Jasper Chellappah (3:28)

Yeah, X-Factor and Spade stuff, absolutely.

He's one that really burst onto the scene early in the year with the AFL Academy, impressed at that level. And then to end the season just in grand finals, he was kicking goals for fun. He ended up with a Coach Talent League grand final, and then also the APS grand final, he took, he put in a really, really good performance in that in a losing effort. So I think he's probably around the 10 mark. He's a bit too late on for West Coast selection. If they look at trading, I know that they've entertained putting the pick on the table and listening to offers. If they can get two of these kind of top 10 to 12 talents, I think they'll definitely listen to it. But as it stands right now, he's probably not the one, but you're right. X Factor in Abundanton, he's a guy that could really explode at the next level off a wing or half-fold flank at 190 centimetres. He can do it all aerially on the ground, works really hard up and down. I think teams love his defence as well. He digs in and does the hard yards, tackles the pressures. So he's going to be a really good forward at the next level. I'm pretty confident in. I just don't think that it's going to be for West Coast.