Henderson’s shot at draft
FORMER Geelong Falcon Jack Henderson will nominate for the draft again after surpassing even his own expectations for Werribee’s VFL team this year.
The 19-year-old simply had the goal of making the Tigers’ list, but scored four straight games to open the season as the club’s 23rd man before maintaining a spot in defence for the remainder of the season.
The small defender was given lockdown jobs on some big names and he didn’t look out of place at state level.
“Playing against AFL-listed players, seeing whether you’re up to the best; that was probably one of the highlights,” Henderson said.
“Travis Varcoe, Josh Green, Angus Monfries, Sam Lloyd — they’re probably the more highprofile ones.
“I don’t know whether it was a scalp, but I thought I negated Josh Green reasonably well when I played against him. And another one, Shai Bolton when we played Richmond.
“I enjoyed playing against a few of those blokes to test your ability.”
That also included two games on former Falcons teammate Gryan Miers where he kept the goalsneak to two goals.
“I loved this year, my first year in the system,” he said.
“Some weeks you’d be playing against stand-alone teams like us and the next week you’d be lining up against AFL-listed players, trying their best to get back into the senior side.
“TAC Cup a lot of players are just playing for yourselves. The Falcons made it feel like a club environment but sometimes it can feel a bit individual.
“But this year at Werribee, it was definitely the opposite.”
While admitting a AFL lifeline looks unlikely, Henderson is prepared to have another crack at VFL level in 2019.
“I don’t think it (my draft chance) is overly high at all, because I haven’t spoken to any clubs, but I honestly just thought I’d nominate anyway because you never know,” he said.
“I signed a week or so ago (to play at Werribee again) so that’s the plan.
“I’d probably like to get my hands on the ball a bit more, provide a bit more run off halfback and get involved in the play out of the backline on more occasions.”