Opinion
Hewago Paul Oea is no household name, but he should be. The Gold Coast Suns have quietly added the Academy Scholarship teenager, better known as ‘Ace’, to their Category B Rookie list.
However, those in the know are far from quiet about the Papua New Guinea native’s prospects in 2021.
With all the focus on the Suns’ concessions from the AFL in late 2019, few noticed the absence of the Allies small forward in the draft. However, he wasn’t passed over, as the Suns recruiters brought in top end talent in the National Draft, he simply wasn’t in the draft at all on account of being a foreign citizen.
Ace had already been a mainstay in rep sides, gaining selection in the AFL Academy in 2017, when he earned a two-year scholarship in mid-2018. For this reason, he was only unofficially added to the list in 2020 because his scholarship ran until July and his development was treated with a unique approach.
The challenges for Ace were immense from the start, coming from Port Moresby to the Gold Coast in his mid-teens and having to make adjustments to a radically different culture.
Not least of his achievements has been his ability to learn in a second language – Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages – while becoming a mainstay in the Suns NEAFL team as a 17-year-old convert.
After breaking into the Suns NEAFL side in 2018, following an impressive Academy Series as a bottom-ager, Ace earned a rising star nomination in 2019. But it was his U18 NAB League performances that earned him rep selection, scoring five goals in five games, averaging 17 disposals, six insides 50s and 3.2 clearances playing a hybrid inside/outside midfielder/forward flanker role.
Then he really hit his stride at the U18 National Championships, playing three of four games for the Allies. Luke Power’s side in the first game was slaughtered by Vic Country, so the AFL Academy coach rang the changes and Ace got his chance along with several other Suns Academy players for the next three games, averaging 11.3 touches, three marks, 4.7 tackles and applying tremendous forward defensive pressure on the classy backlines of SA, Western Australia and Vic Metro.
With the NAB League and NEAFL cancelled, Ace became an unofficial listed player this year. In fact, at the Suns’ jumper presentation at the beginning of the year, he was part of the ceremony despite not formally being drafted.
He didn’t play in either of the Suns Academy victories over the Lions, however, this was due to his selection for the Suns reserves in the scratch matches.
Suns assistant coach, Tim Clarke, said about Ace’s September performance against the Collingwood reserves: “Ace was dominant with his work-rate against Collingwood, constantly working back to support our defenders. He had good ball use going inside 50 and finished the game with a high amount of score involvements”.
After the Freo scratch match, he said “Ace had a really pleasing performance on the weekend as a small forward. He played his role and worked hard to support our defence. He had a high involvement around the middle of the ground … and had some terrific contest wins”.
Stuart Dew quite famously suggested that he’d like to have Ace’s magnet on the whiteboard during selection meetings when asked about the youngster’s talents. The coaches have clearly accelerated the speedster’s progress both in training, having taken him to the New Zealand camp in the preseason, and in exposing him to AFL listed opposition.
Ace is listed at 175cm, which casts some doubt on his ability to succeed at AFL level. He also has some hugely talented and experienced teammates competing for small forward spots.
In spite of the challenges ahead, Ace’s achievements so far demonstrate that no obstacle is too large for him to tackle.
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