Local talents among Murray Bushrangers pre-season hopefuls

Overall, 91 boys and 65 girls have been earmarked for the under-18 squads, with each of those players either being nominated by their clubs, are a squad member from last season, or are an under-16 graduate vying to lock down a permanent list spot.

Numbers will be whittled down through a month-long block beginning late November, with the Bushies’ coaching department, spearheaded by incoming under-18 boys coach Justin McMahon and girls’ contemporary Tyson Saunders, tasked with overseeing hundreds of prospective talents.

“All the community clubs nominate players, and then we have two testing days through RookieMe, so we get some athletic profiling data from that,” McMahon said.

“Our high-performance stuff will be really important; we’ll build that up over that four-week block.

“It’s a big mix of obviously a lot of players who were in the squad and the team last year returning, and then the 16-year-olds stepping up as bottom age players from last year.

“There's different challenges for different age groups moving into the under-18s pre-season.”

Standard KPIs such as athleticism and footy IQ will be assessed in formulating 2026 lists, but for Saunders, the impact of this off-season period extends beyond the field.

“(What we look for) is probably no different to what we've sort of seen in previous years, looking at how that translates for our athletes to prepare them for what's ahead,” he said.

“The motto of the Bushies is to ‘leave better’, and our job is to hopefully try and impart that to the athletes themselves.

“Whether it’s training habits or the way they go about fundamentals, that's what we want for all the athletes that partake in this pre-season period.”

“We’re really excited; a lot of our players who made the squads have either been in it previously or they've been nominated through some really good form at their clubs.”

The under-18 boys finished 16th in 2025, with the girls progressing to the preliminary final.