Jaspa Fletcher doesn‘t like to think too far ahead. But imagining his dad’s reaction should the Brisbane Lions draft the gun midfielder next month is too good to ignore.
Fletcher’s father, Adrian, played 231 AFL games for four clubs across 13 seasons. Jaspa jokes: “There’s a few jerseys in my closet.”
Most notably, 107 of those matches were for the Lions.
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As a player, Adrian was one of the most workmanlike and consistent midfielders of his time, averaging one Brownlow vote every three games and letting his footy do the talking. As a coach since – he was an assistant at three AFL clubs before moving into development at AFL Queensland, which included leading the Allies – he‘s created a culture of work ethic to achieve excellence.
But should his son land at the Lions – as most in the AFL recruiting industry believe he will – Jaspa is bracing for his dad to, momentarily, let his stoic guard down.
“It’d be pretty surreal (to be drafted to Brisbane),” Fletcher told foxfooty.com.au.
“Dad doesn’t show much emotion a lot of the time. He wants to keep his focus straight ahead and he’s always been hard on me.
“But I think if it was to happen on draft night, he’d be pretty proud and I could see it on his face. I’d be pretty emotional I think.”
His mum Narelle Fletcher (nee McConnell) – a WNBL life member that played 294 games with four clubs – would be just as proud too, probably teary.
THE LONG LIONS CONNECTION
Adrian retired as an AFL player just over two-and-a-half years before Jaspa was born. That year, he was part of Geelong’s coaching panel before returning to Collingwood in 2005 for three seasons. Subsequently, Jaspa was initially a Collingwood fan before switching to the Lions when his dad returned to the club as an assistant coach. The Lions connection has remained strong ever since.
Fletcher vividly remembers running around The Gabba as an eight-year-old. Next year, he’ll almost certainly be gracing the same venue as a 19-year-old Lions AFL player.
With his dad clearing the 100-game qualification threshold, Fletcher would’ve been eligible to be drafted by Brisbane as a father-son selection. But as Fletcher has been part of the club’s Academy for around six years, he doesn’t have to officially nominate as a father-son prospect before Wednesday‘s deadline.
The consensus among recruiters spoken to by foxfooty.com.au this week is Fletcher will be the second prospect to attract a rival club bid after the Lions‘ other father-son prospect Will Ashcroft, who’ll almost certainly be called at Pick 1. They believe a bid on Fletcher could then come as early as West Coast’s second selection (Pick 12, which will be Pick 13 after the Ashcroft bid), but more likely from when the Swans enter the draft at Pick 15.
If Ashcroft receives a bid at Pick 1 and Fletcher earns one at roughly Pick 15, the Lions would need to use 3290 points to match the bids. They currently only have 2247 points – not even enough to match an Ashcroft bid at No.1 (2400 points) – but could either trade for more second and third-round picks, or go into draft deficit to secure them.
Asked if he had any idea how the draft value index AFL clubs use worked, Fletcher said with a laugh: “Not really. I know briefly what happens with all the points, but it‘s a little bit confusing sometimes … I try not to focus on it too much.”
PRIMED FOR THE TOP LEVEL
It’s widely expected the Lions will match a bid on Fletcher. But even if they don’t, the young gun is well prepared for the rigours of the AFL.
Fletcher could’ve easily told his dad to be hands-off during his footy journey. Instead, he‘s embraced the advantage of having a dad that not only knows what it takes to reach the elite level, but also what it takes to stay there.
The duo train together during summer – “he (Dad) likes to think he’s still pretty fit. He’s sliding a little bit, but he’s still pretty good” – then work closely in-season reviewing every one of Fletcher‘s games.
“I always pick his brains on what‘s best and what he thinks is best for me,” he said.
“I‘ve always trained with him in the off-season and we work on things that I need to get better at. We focus a lot on skillwork – a lot of things he likes to say he was good at – in the air and ground balls. The ball is on the ground 70 per cent of the time, so focusing on that is huge. As well as that contested stuff and using my body at my size against bigger boys to be pretty impactful.
“After games we’ll always review the game that I‘ve just played and take what I did well out of it, but we like to focus on what room for improvement there is and take it into the next week.”
Fletcher, too, is a self-confessed “footyhead”, which soared to new levels during the back-end of his 2022 campaign when he was sidelined with a foot injury. Instead of watching AFL matches for entertainment, he focused on certain players to see “what their running patterns are like”.
FIRST-ROUND BOLTER
Running and taking territory is a big part of Fletcher’s game. That was on display during both the Academy series – when he won the Hunter-Harrison medal for the carnival’s best player – then the national Under 18 championships — when he made the All-Australian team after booting three goals and averaging 22.7 disposals and 9.7 contested possessions.
Fletcher believes the high contested possession numbers were a result of playing against bigger bodies at QAFL level for the Sherwood Magpies as an inside midfielder. Their coach? Adrian Fletcher.
Subsequently, the 184cm midfielder has shot up into first-round draft calculations.
“I like to take the game on,” he said. “I like to run and bounce and penetrate the lines. I thrive on my skill execution and use the ball well going inside 50 and outside 50 when I’m playing on the wing.
“I’m more of an outside player at the moment and hopefully I’ll be able to work on my inside game a bit more.”
It’s why Fletcher – his own harshest critic – believes he started his draft year “quite poorly”.
He prides himself on “the impact I have on the game”. So even though his stats looked good in the Allies’ close loss to South Australia, he was disappointed with his output as he “didn’t use it as well as I thought I could have”.
But a fortnight later, Fletcher produced “probably my best game for the year” against Western Australia. His numbers were only slightly better – 26 disposals, six clearances and four tackles – but his impact per disposal, according to the on-baller, was greater.
“I didn’t play my best footy at all in the first game. Ever since then, I realised how much hard work does go in in a long year like this,” he said. “Every training session since, I‘ve just dug in as hard as I could and got better every week.
“You‘re always focusing on the end of the year, but I think you take it game by game and month by month, you’re much better for it.”
Fletcher was also given the tricky task of leading the Allies after he was named team captain for the championships. It’s a tough ask because you‘re trying to unite players from five different states and territories in a short time frame, but teammate Lachie Cowan said Fletcher did a stellar job.
Fletcher believes his grandfather, Terry McConnell, has had a profound influence on his life, for if it wasn’t for his wisdom, he mightn’t have rallied the Allies troops as promptly and effectively.
“Pop has always been big on being a good person to others. Just getting to know people and being open to how they’re feeling and what they’re talking about and listening to what they’re talking about and making them feel comfortable,“ he said.
“I was awarded Allies captain this year, which was a great honour to use the skills he’s taught me. In our first camp when all the boys were new and a bit shy, that advice was really helpful.”
THE ‘CRAZY’ BRISBANE POSSIBILITY
Fletcher is now one month away from realising his AFL dream.
Should he land at the Lions, as expected, he won’t have to travel far for captain’s run training sessions and home games because he lives in West End – a lengthy five-minute commute from The Gabba.
It’s a journey he’s already completed a lot in the past year, firstly training with Brisbane‘s AFL list during a summer internship before stints with the VFL program as an Academy prospect.
“I remember the first week everyday coming home from training, I wanted to sleep for about 12 hours,” he said with a laugh. “But I think that set me up great because now I know what it‘s like in an AFL environment pre-season.
“It gives me the best chance that hopefully if I do end up on a list that I know what‘s expected of me and how to take care of myself off the field and the organisation that’s required.”
Fletcher was also around the Lions’ AFL group during the recent finals series, in which the Lions generated infectious momentum.
“Being able to go to games first-hand and watch the Lions in the finals was unreal,” he said. “Like that game against Richmond gave me goosebumps that hopefully I could be out there one day.
“It was pretty cool walking into training every day and seeing what it’s like playing for finals. The boys were up and about after that Richmond game – and then they were even more up and about after heading down to Melbourne and beating Melbourne. The energy around the club was surreal.”
It was another taste of life as a Lion for Fletcher.
Adding him, Ashcroft, Josh Dunkley and Jack Gunston to a list so clearly in the premiership window makes the prospect even more tantalising.
“The Lions have been up there for the last few years. They haven’t quite got to the final stage, but with the players they’ve got coming in … they’re going to be good for a few more years,” he said.
“To maybe be around those boys would be crazy.”
