WA State Talent Manager Adam Jones

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**Mark Duffield** (1:00)
Welcome back to the SENWA studio. We're out here at Optus Stadium. It's a Monday morning in Perth. It is 14.1 degrees outside at the moment, partly cloudy in the city today. Going to be a top of 19 degrees. The sun is shining on our talent development pathways though. The 18s were good in their carnival, four players in the All-Australian team, three players in Kel Toomey's July edition of his top 25
To talk about that, Adam Jones, the WA state manager, state talent manager, sorry. Jonesy joins us now. Jonesy, welcome.

**Adam Jones** (1:39)
Morning Duff, how are you going?

**Mark Duffield** (1:40)
I'm well, mate.
So Heath Melody is our LARC medalist, and four guys in the All-Australian team in the 18s, and three in Kel Toomey's top 25 for July. Looking forward to the draft. Not a bad outcome.

**Adam Jones** (1:56)
No, absolutely. We were bitterly disappointed to lose that last game against the Allies, but a few circumstances went against us, but across the carnival, the boys played really well, and those four in the All-Australian really deserving.
And Heathy had an outstanding campaign, capped off that last game with the best on ground performance after he'd been bedridden for two days with the gastro virus.

**Mark Duffield** (2:22)
So, they now have him sort of in the middle of the top 10 for the draft. That's where that sits according to Kel Toomey at the moment. Kel Toomey obviously has access to the clubs and all the recruiting managers, so he tends to be not far off the mark with things like this. Where do you see Heath fitting in as an AFL player? Is he a mid? Is he a rebounding defender? Where exactly is he?

**Adam Jones** (2:46)
Well, the beauty of Heath is he can play all those roles, plus he's played wing before as well. Probably the only real role he hasn't played a lot of is up forward, but it's easy to kick a nice goal at a school game on the weekend.
So yeah, I think that's part of his beauty, is that he can play multiple positions, but I think he was devastating when we moved him on ball in the big country game and the catalyst for us coming back and winning that game. So I think in time, once he gets his body big enough, he's going to be a top line midfielder.

**Mark Duffield** (3:21)
Leo Steed, very impressive throughout the carnival and a very impressive character as well.

**Adam Jones** (3:28)
Yeah, he's a beauty, Steedy. Like he's in rarefied air in terms of his competitiveness.
And you see guys like, yeah, Sarong and Lockie Neal at his size come through. And I think I just have that feeling that Steedy's going to have a career like that. He's just such a competitor, such a hard worker. He's improved so many aspects of his game over the last couple of years. I think he's got another one that's got a really big future ahead of him.

**Mark Duffield** (3:58)
So just for listeners that aren't across all this, Kel Toomey from afl.com.au, as I said, a man with a lot of inside knowledge on these things. He had Heath Melody in the middle of the top 10
He had Leo Steed at 10 And the other one he had sneaking into the top 25 was George Gale, the son of Mark. Tell us about his carnival, Adam.