After a quiet debut in Round One, Brisbane son of a gun Will Ashcroft is the Round 2 Rising Star nominee, after an impressive midfield performance against flag favourite Melbourne at the Gabba last Friday evening.
Ashcroft – son of Brisbane Lions triple premiership player and 318 gamer Marcus – is the most highly rated father-son midfielder since… well, Nick Daicos.
He came to the Lions via the Sandringham Dragons (2/2 Rising Star nods so far for the Dragons after Harry Sheezel’s nomination last week) and Brighton Grammar, where he finished his secondary schooling in 2021.
He has followed a relatively circuitous route to the AFL, though, as he followed his father’s work from the Gold Coast – when father Marcus worked at the Suns – to Melbourne – when he worked for the AFL- then back to the Gold Coast during the Melbourne COVID lockdowns of 2020, and then finally back to Melbourne again after the completion of that season.
It didn’t seem to negatively impact his junior football though, as he was a dominant player and captain of various underage teams, whether in Queensland or Victoria.
Ashcroft was viewed by most recruiters as the best player in the 2022 draft pool, but his name was called out second by North Melbourne – immediately matched by Brisbane – after GWS drafted key forward Aaron Cadman with the number one overall selection.
This came as little surprise, with GWS trading up to that number one pick with a stated desire to take the best key position player rather than add to their bulging midfield stocks.
Ashcroft had a highly decorated junior career – as a Gold Coast Suns academy player, he won an All-Australian gong playing for Queensland as a bottom-ager in the National U15 Championships, while also captaining Victoria as a top-ager the following year.
He represented Victoria in two National U18 Championships – as captain and Larke Medallist in 2022 – and also skippered the premiership-winning Sandringham Dragons in last year’s NAB League. He was viewed as a very safe selection, with his maturity, off-field dedication and on and off-field leadership hallmarks of his football to this point.
Ashcroft started slowly against Port Adelaide in the opening round, but hit his straps against the Demons on Friday night, collecting 31 disposals and kicking a goal in the Lions’ excellent win. Ashcroft collected most of his touches in the midfield or slightly defensive side, emphasising his ability to accumulate at will.
Will Ashcroft. (Photo by Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
He has good stoppage craft and covers the ground extremely well. Whilst his disposal efficiency has been quite low in the first fortnight, at this stage of his career he is very much an inside mid, so that is to be somewhat expected.
Joining a Lions team that is absolutely stacked in the midfield, to already be a key part of the centre square rotation shows how highly he is rated by Chris Fagain – if he can continue in this vein, then it frees up players like Hugh McCluggage, Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley to create a little more on the outside, while also adding some variety to the mix, which can only be a good thing for the Lions’ fortunes this season.
He is certainly no giant, on the smaller side for midfielders in 2023, but it would be expected that Ashcroft will play most, if not all, games this season – especially if he can be rested away from the coalface when the Lions would expect to have som comfortable victories during the middle part of the season.
Developing more of an outside game and ensuring his two-way running is at the required level, which will utilise his natural athletic ability, will be a priority; but it would certainly be pleasing for Lions fans that he appears to have good goal sense – midfielders who can be weapons at forward 50 stoppages are very valuable.
Chances of winning the Rising Star
He’s fourth or fifth banana in the Brisbane midfield, so he’ll be able to ply his trade without the focus of some other nominees who are immediately required to take more responsibility.
His excellent consistency will also mean that, like Daicos, it’s likely he’ll regularly figure in his team’s best players, so will continually be putting his name in lights. He’s a little off-Broadway in Brisbane, but this shouldn’t be an issue as he is undoubtedly the anointed one amongst the AFL media.
Plays Like
He is said to base his game on Carlton young gun Sam Walsh, and this is as good a comparison as any.
Ceiling
At the risk of sounding a bit like Kane Cornes, I want to see some more match-winning qualities from Ashcroft before I declare that he can be one of the best players in the AFL.
He’ll undoubtedly win plenty of the ball, and he’ll be a very, very solid citizen for a long time, but he will need to tidy up his disposal and increase his productivity forward of centre if he is going to be recognised among the absolute elite of the competition.
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