Shepp News |
Brett Mahoney may have just missed out on playing in the WAFL’s drought-breaking victory over the VFL on Saturday, but he is making a mighty impression for club side Subiaco.
Mahoney, 23, has come a long way since winning Mansfield’s 2010 best-and-fairest award and being a regular Goulburn Valley interleague player.
He represented Victoria Country two years ago, alongside fellow Goulburn Valley league players Paul Colbert, Guy Campbell, David Clark and Kristan Height, against VAFA at Shepparton’s Deakin Reserve.
Mahoney then switched to Subiaco in the WAFL last season, when he averaged 16.1 disposals per game in 18 senior games.
The strong-bodied on-baller has gone to a new level this year.
Mahoney has amassed 164 possessions in just six senior matches, which ranks him 12th in the competition and that is despite nine of the 11 players above him playing an extra game.
One of those ahead of him is Subiaco and former Mansfield teammate Jarrod Kayler-Thompson, who was previously on Hawthorn’s rookie list.
Kayler-Thompson is averaging one disposal short of 30 and his total of 179 is the sixth-most in the league.
The WAFL wasn’t Mahoney’s first state-league stint, having featured intermittently in Collingwood’s VFL side during his last few years at the Eagles.
Success has followed him throughout his football career, having represented Victoria at under-15 level and won premierships for TAC Cup under-18 side Murray Bushrangers in 2008 and Mansfield a year later.
Mahoney made the final 25 of WAFL’s representative side, but found out last Friday night he was one of two who had missed the cut.
Ex-Avenel and Seymour junior Willie Wheeler, who played in the Lions’ Goulburn Valley Football League grand final last season, competed for the VFL.
WAFL recovered from a 31-point deficit in the third term to beat the VFL’s finest by 17 points and end two decades of dominance.
Mahoney and Kayler-Thompson are not the only Eagles of recent years plying their trade at state-league standard.
Last year’s Mansfield best-and-fairest winner Nick Gray has played all five matches for Collingwood’s VFL team this season.
