Footy factories: The schools that produced the most AFL finals players, ranked

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Ben Hanisch has seen a few changes in schools football in the more than two decades he has been patrolling the boundaries.

The Melbourne Grammar School deputy headmaster can remember when coaches and managers of top private schools’ football teams were teachers, not former AFL pros, and back in those days, Grammar did not have 10 players on the lists of teams competing in the league’s finals series.

The large number of players contesting finals this year reflects the continuing dominance of a few Victorian private schools – most of them members of the Associated Public Schools (APS) sporting group – in the AFL’s national draft.

Another school football powerhouse, Carey Baptist Grammar, has nine of its former players listed with clubs contesting the final eight this year, including Collingwood superstars Nick Daicos and Darcy Moore, and had four old boys named in the All-Australian side this week.

The outsized presence in the AFL draft of boys from elite Melbourne private schools continues to grow, as parents of talented boys became increasingly drawn to the valuable scholarships offered by prestigious schools in return for match-winning ability.

AFL-level coaching and team management talent is also increasingly being secured by the city’s wealthiest schools to get a competitive edge over rivals and as a recruiting draw for full-fee paying students.

As the finals series gets underway, an analysis by The Age, using material from Champion Data, the APS and the schools themselves, reveals which schools have supplied the most listed players at the clubs that have made this year’s final eight.

In the public school sector, the case of Rowville Secondary College illustrates the dominant pattern in the school-to-AFL pathway. Three former Rowville students, Hawthorn’s Nick Watson and Connor Macdonald, and Adelaide’s Jake Soligo, are all set to see September action with their clubs.

But only Soligo completed his schooling at the eastern suburbs high school, with Watson and Macdonald accepting private school scholarships and graduating from Caulfield Grammar and Haileybury respectively.

Haileybury College and Caulfield Grammar both have eight former students listed at finalist clubs, Xavier College has seven, and a non-metro, non-APS school - Ballarat’s St Patrick’s College - is giving its Melbourne rivals a run for their money, with six ex-St Pats students potentially lining up for game time in September.

The number would have been higher had Adelaide veteran Matt Crouch not hung up his boots last week.

Both Geelong Grammar and Wesley College, who each have five former players listed with top eight clubs, stand a good chance of seeing their former students in finals action this year.

Melbourne Grammar’s Hanisch is a teacher by trade, but he did guide the school’s first 18 to a coveted APS premiership, probably the nation’s most fiercely contested schools football prize, in 2008.

These days, though, the school leaves it to the professionals, with former Carlton coach David Teague leading the football program and ex-Oakleigh Chargers and Northern Knights coach Leigh Clarke coaching the first team.

It is not just about the AFL draft, Hanisch said.

“There’s changing expectations from parents and students about the level of expertise needed throughout the program, not just at the first [team] level, that all of our students get a good level of coaching, and that regardless of how good or skillful they are, they come out the other end really enjoying the sport,” the deputy headmaster told The Age.

“I think that’s the most important thing.”

Carey Grammar will be watching the finals series intently, with two former students, Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson, making history in 2019 as the first players ever picked at number one and two from the same school in the national draft, pivotal to the September fortunes of the Gold Coast Suns.

Carey Baptist Grammar School’s head of sport Jack Joslin with AFL draft prospects Max Kondogiannis, Riley Hilton and Sadie Chun.

The school’s head of sport, Jack Joslin, said Carey’s success in the national draft was due to many factors, and that having boys and girls training and playing together was one of them.

“The co-ed nature is massive,” Joslin said.

“But it’s the time and energy put in the junior program, years 7, 8 and 9, where boys and girls start to fall in love with their sport, in love with their footy.

“They also build that strong sense of understanding of the game, a sense of connection with their peers so that by the time they get into years 10, 11 and 12, they’ve got that really strong foundation and they start to play with different age groups. So in the boys, for example, there’ll be some [year] 10s, 11s, and 12s in that first 18.

“So they get to have that strong connection, those strong friendships, and then they get to run out together at training and in games.”

Luke Soulos, chief executive officer of APS Sport, told The Age that quality sports programs that went beyond football were often a key factor in parents’ choice of schools.

“Good programs with opportunity will attract good people, which will attract good players, and that’s what seems to be rolling out,” Soulos said.

“Our programs are very good in terms of the offerings, opportunities, and resources, as well as the personnel and that makes them attractive to people asking, ‘where would I like to send my kid?’

Soulos said there was much more to the APS schools football programs than just AFL recruitment.

“It’s not just about playing AFL, it’s about developing the whole athlete and building good character through sport,” he said.

“It could mean that you never play at the top level and that you end up playing for your local amateur club, in which our schools have very strong representation because of the old collegians teams and their networks.”