Youngster picking up where famous dad, uncles left offA FOUR-goal 19-possession effort from Brandon Matera has sparked Western Australia to a 47-point thumping of South Australia in the Black Swans' opening match of the AFL’s national under-18 championships in Perth on Saturday night.
Brandon, the son of inaugural West Coast Eagle, and Fitzroy, rover Wally (1987-1990), set the earlybirds at Subiaco Oval alight in the curtain-raiser to the Fremantle-v-Richmond match with a brilliant snap from deep in the forward pocket in the second quarter. WA eventually cruised to a 19.12 (126) to 12.7 (79) win.
Wally, a former South Fremantle captained returned to the WAFL after his four-season stint in the AFL where he won the club’s fairest-and-best.
Brandon’s equally famous uncles Peter and Phil played a combined 412 AFL games for West Coast with Peter (1990-2002) sharing in the Eagles’ 1992 and 1994 premierships, the former in which he won the Norm Smith Medal as best-on-ground. Phil played 179 games for West Coast between 1996 and 2005. He was controversially left out of West Coast’s 2005 AFL Grand Final team (in which they lost) and retired shortly thereafter.
Brandon’s coach Andrew Lockyer, a team-mate of his dad and uncle Peter, was full of praise for the 17-year-old.
"There was no pressure from us about how well Brandon can play, we just let him play. He’s going to be a very, very good player," Lockyer said. "There’s a long way to go, a lot of areas he needs to improve on, but he showed today that he’s going to be good. He does a lot of things where you can see the Matera in him. He’s quick, evasive and he’s got fantastic vision and obviously the goal he kicked in the second quarter was something special."
One of manyTHE young Matera is one of several youngsters in action over the course of the under-18 championships. The month-long event gives AFL clubs a last real look at emerging talent before the national draft later this year.
Roland Ah Chee starred for NT in their win over Tasmania last week. Team-mates include Charlie McAdam and Nathan Ahmat-Watkins, among others, who also played starring roles for the Thunder.
Tim Milera and Derick Wanganeen for SA are other Indigenous players in the tournament.
There are two divisions. WA, SA, Vic Metro and Vic Country make up division 1 and NSW/ACT, Queensland, Tasmania and Northern Territory division 2. The eight competing teams -- NSW/ACT, NT, Queensland, S, Tasmania, Vict Country, Vict Metro and WA -- will each host matches.
* Click this link to view the complete fxutres:
2009 AFL under-18 championships fixtures.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
Darren@AboriginalFootball.com.au
Monday, June 1, 2009
Last Modified on 01/06/2009 02:38