The West Coast Eagles’ partnership with East Perth was further galvanised today when two young Royals made their way onto the club’s playing list through the AFL rookie draft.
Emerging defender Tom Gorter was secured with the Eagles’ first selection in the rookie draft while Tarir Bayok made his way to the club as a category B rookie – the first player selected from the club’s recently created Next Generation Academy.
Gorter, who recently turned 20, is a 191cm defender who played State 18s two years ago and has been a regular senior player at East Perth.
Bayok, who played State 18s this year, is a pacey midfielder-forward with a Sudanese background.
The club also formalised the recruitment of North Melbourne great Drew Petrie and retained another talented big man, Fraser McInnes, to complete a highly successful trade and draft period.
While securing a veteran as a rookie might seem to be a contradiction, the highly accomplished Petrie will offer valuable big man support for the 2017 season with Nic Naitanui and Scott Lycett both recovering from knee surgeries.
Lycett will be managed through the pre-season while Naitanui is recovering from a knee reconstruction after a serious injury deep in the 2016 campaign.
The arrival of Petrie offers another ally to Lycett, Jonathan Giles and former Geelong ruckman Nathan Vardy, who arrived during the post-season trade period.
Petrie, 34, racked up 316 games for North – second only to AFL games record-holder Brent Harvey (432) – and was the Eagles’ second selection in the rookie ballot.
During his highly successful career with the Kangaroos he kicked 428 goals and offered valuable ruck support to the likes of Todd Goldstein.
Originally drafted to the club in 2011, McInnes has played nine games but has been restricted by his own injury concerns in the last couple of years. Taken with the Eagles’ third selection, McInnes is another tall forward-ruck option, offering the club the requisite cover in that area.
“It is a fantastic result for us and also East Perth,” general manager of football Craig Vozzo said of the Gorter and Bayok selections.
“We have had a good look at Tommy the last couple of years and have been very impressed with his season, his growth and development. We think he’s a player who will come in, hit the ground running andput his name right up for selection early in the year.
“The selection of Tarir Bayok is historic in that he is our first Next Generation Academy player and we’re really excited about that. I know Adam Selwood, our head coach at the academy, was keen for that to happen.
“Tarir is super quick. We think he’s got a lot of upside, having played for East Perth and the WA 18s team this year.
“Our partnership with East Perth is strong because we have respect for each other so it is an alignment we have enjoyed and I think they have as well.”
“Drew is a different type of selection at his age. He comes in to fill a specific need for us. We spoke prior to the trade period about Nic’s injury and Scott’s injury that we needed to be creative in our mindset and our strategy going into trade and drafting.
“The package of players we have been able to get, including Sam Mitchell, who is an A-Grade midfielder, with Nathan Vardy, who gives us forward-ruck support, Drew gives us another player who is a forward-ruck and that gives the match committee plenty of options."
